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Copyrighted, Feb 1905, ■ 
'Grip," 109 a Corning£Ave., Syracuse,' N.|Y. (ILLUSTRATED.) 



"GRIP'S" 

Historical Souvenir of Clyde, N. Y. 



Iwo Copies Received 

APR 6 19U5 
Ccjwrignt tiury 

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Historical Souvenir Series No. J 9* 



Clyde, N, Y. and V icinity 



Copyrighted, February, 1905 
'Grip," 109 Corning Ave., Syracuse, N. Y. 



( ILLUSTRATED.) 








Russell, Photo. 



CLYDE, BIRDSBYB FROM THE STANDPIPE. 



DESCRIPTION OF CLYDE, 



/^LYDE, a village of 2,500 population, a con- 
servative and prosperous community, occu- 
pies an eligible location for trade in a section 
comprising the whole of the eastern end of 
Wayne county, with a radius of several miles in 
the northern section of Seneca county. It is at 
Clyde where the future junction of the proposed 
connection between the railroads and the big 
barge canal which is to cross the State of New 
York, and Lake Ontario at Great Sodus Bay is 
to be effected by means of both canal and rail- 



road. It is admitted that there is no better har- 
bor on Lake Ontario than that of Great Sodus 
Bay penetrating as it does six miles into the 
land, surrounded by elevated ground and having 
a depth of water sufficient to float ocean steam- 
boats. As this bay is about three miles wide it 
is plain that it has a magnificent harbor upon 
which the Government has spent comparatively 
nothing. As it is now proposed to take advan- 
tage of this magnificent harbor as soon as the 
barge canal is finished, Clyde will unquestionably 
be selected as the point where the water and 
rail lines to the bay will begin. The distance to 
the head of the bay is only six miles and the 
level, highly cultivated stretches of country in- 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 




Russell, Photo. 

GLASGOW ST. NORTH FROM THE RAILROAD. 

tervening offer an easy and feasible route. 

Clyde is a station of considerable business on 
the great four-track line, The New York Central 
& Hudson River Railroad, midway between 
Syracuse and Rochester, or about forty miles 
from each. The New York, West Shore & Buf- 
falo Railroad, a parallel line of two tracks, also 
passes through the village, the two roads giving 
Clyde a connection with the outside world by 
means of four through east and west tracks- 
lines directly connecting New York and Buffalo. 
Seneca Lake is only fifteen miles south and the 
project, which will eventually be carried out, of 
connecting this beautiful inland lake with Lake 
Ontario by canal, which route must necessarily 
pass through Clyde, is bound to give Clyde greater 
importance than any of her 
sister villages in the county, 
since it will open up a direct 
water and rail route to the 
southern tier counties of the 
state. 

The new trolley road con- 
necting Syracuse and Ro- 
chester, which is now being 
built, will give Clyde two 
more tracks to the east and 
west. This will make six, 
a means of commercial com- 
munication which few towns 
of its size possess. This 
new trolley is being con- 
structed on the most ap- 
proved plans, of the heav- 
iest rail and best laid road- 
bed, and with an equipment 
capable of giving the best 
passenger and freight ser- 
vice- Russell, Photo. 



Clyde is not a manufac- 
turing town but with the 
present advantages it pos- 
sesses and the proposed pro- 
jects above described it 
offers to new industries a 
most desirable location. 
Factory building sites are 
available at a compara- 
tively low cost directly on 
the line of the railroads and 
the canal. 

The manufacturing insti- 
tutions that Clyde has are 
prosperous and give em- 
ployment practically the 
year around. The glass 
works make bottles of all 
kinds and glass fruit jars. 
This industry was estab- 
lished many years ago and 
its products have a high 
reputation. Here are also 
manufactured portable engines, farm machinery 
and many lines of products used most in daily life 
which bring in considerable money to the pro- 
ducer, such as clothing, cigars, harnesses, etc. 

Some of the large fruit dealers in New York 
and other large cities have a shipping station at 
this place and during the fruit season their buy- 
ers pay out thousands of dollars to the growers 
in this section. Two or three responsible houses 
here have evaporating plants where they annu- 
ally evaporate tons of apples and other fruits. 
Hemmenway Bros., whose reputation in the 
fruit and vegetable line is quite extensive, main- 
tains at Clyde one of its branch houses. 

There are also large grain and produce ship- 
pers here and a garden and vegetable seed house.. 



..-.-—-.••■■" 




CENTRAL RAILROAD STATION. 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL^SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



The flour and feed mills at Clyde do a big busi- 
ness and there is also a maltster who ships large 
quantities of malt to Philadelphia. At one time 
Clyde had several large malt houses, immense 
structures, some of which are still standing, and 
which no doubt would be available for manufac" 
turing plants. The Clyde Creamery Company is 
one of the latest industries which is an important 
factor with the dairymen. The plant has a 
capacity for making 2,000 pounds of butter daily. 
To obtain milk from a large extent of country it 
has established receiving stations to the north 
and south of Clyde village where as the milk is 
received it is skimmed, the cream being carted 
to the factory in the village. 

The farming country about Clyde is one of the 
most fertile and richest of agricultural sections 



It is hardly necessary to go into details to any 
extent as to the many church, social and educa- 
tional advantages that Clyde possesses. Like all 
other towns of its size, in New York state at 
least, Clyde takes great pride in its school and 
spares no expense to make it the very best of 
public schools. Clyde has six churches, two 
weekly newspapers, several fraternal orders and 
a number of social clubs and gatherings. 

The village has a well equipped and thorough- 
ly organized fire department and its water sys- 
tem is as good as the best. It is lighted by one of 
the best electric plants in the country where the 
commercial service is ample for a large town. 
The business places in Clyde are largely modern 
and well stocked. The village boasts of an opera 
house, which is comparatively new and fully 







Russell. Photo. 



GLASGOW ST. EAST SIDE, NORTH FROM THE BRIDGE. 



in the state. It has few equals as a fruit grow- 
ing country, for which Wayne county has a world 
wide reputation. The principal fruits grown, for 
which Clyde is one of the main shipping points, 
are apples, pears, peaches and berries of all 
kinds. The acreage of strawberries is increasing 
every year. At one time this was a great grain 
section and while considerable winter grain is 
grown in this locality now, the ryes and barleys 
which at one time constituted a large part of the 
crops have disappeared. In recent years there 
has been an increase in the production of vegeta- 
bles, sugar beets, onions and cabbage. The big 
sugar beet factory, the only one in this state, is 
only four or five miles from Clyde, and there the 
sugar beet raiser finds a convenient market for 
all that he can raise. 



equipped. It is a building built exclusively for 
that purpose, with ground floor entrance, the 
lower floor devoted to the use of the municipal 
departments of the village. 

Reminiscences: The Oldest Resident of Clyde 
Describes the Village as It was in the First 
Twenty-Five Years of its History; A Remark- 
ably Clear Memory Discloses Many Interesting 
Events of Half a Century Ago; The First 
Town Fair Held on the Village Common:— 

Dr. D. Colvin came to Clyde when he was 
eleven years old, in 1833; when his father, Dr. 
Nathan P. Colvin, brought him here and placed 
him in school. Dr. Nathan P. Colvin, a prac- 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



ticing physician at Marengo at that time, had in 
1831 come from Washington county and located 
in Marengo, which was then a more important 
community so far as location was concerned 
than Clyde. The great western turnpike passes 
through Marengo and that was then the great 
artery of travel through this part of the state. 
Four-horse stages passed over that road daily, 
and passengers and mail for Clyde were trans- 
ferred at Marengo. Three years later Dr. Na- 
than Colvin located in Clyde and opened the first 
exclusive drug store, but in the meantime his 
son was a pupil here in the village school and his 
remarkable memory goes back to many interest- 
ing events of that period, even as far back as 
when the village of Clyde was scarcely more 
than twenty-five years old. 

"At the time I came here and until several 
years after," said Dr. Colvin, "there was no 
railroad in Clyde and the canal was the old prim- 
itive affair that was first constructed, with its 



the corner of the street and alley, and which 
was cut off from public view by a high fence 
and roof. In this enclosure was kept going a 
tread power driven by a horse whose constant 
treading could be heard out in the street. For 
years the drug store, warehouse and tread pow- 
er constituted one of the principal landmarks of 
the village. Some time in its early history the 
property came into the possession of Dr. Lynus 
Ely, a large capitalist and land owner over in 
Seneca county, and his son, Wm. C. Ely, eventu- 
ally carried on business there. A man named 
Waldmff (now called Waldorf) bought the build- 
ing of Lynus Ely and built the block that now 
stands there. 

"In a little tu'penny building which stood on 
the ground now occupied by Sherman's drug 
store, which was a one-story frame structure, 
lived a shoemaker's family in 1834 by the name 
of Jenkins where, in the spring of that year, my 
father placed me to board after he brought me 
to Clyde and left me here to attend school. He 




i 




Russell, Photo, 



GLASGOW ST.. EAST SIDE. NORTH FROM FORD ST. 



narrow, single wooden locks. But it was the moved here in the fall. On the corner of Col- 



best means of shipping in those days, and all 
goods that went in and out of this country were 
carried on the canal. The warehouse through 
which they passed — where the boats were load- 
ed and unloaded — was a large frame building 
that stood on the east side of Glasgow street 
next to the canal, now the site of the Thorn 
block. This was the first wooden building I re- 
call. In front was a drug store, the warehouse 
I speak of being a large building that stood in 
the rear with one end on the canal and the other 
opening on to an alley on the north. The farm- 
er drove into this alley and unloaded his team 
into the warehouse, his produce going on to 
the boats at the other end of the building. 
There the goods that came from New York were 
carried into the warehouse to be passed out at 
the north end to the merchant who also drove 
into the alley to get them. The two buildings, 
the drug store standing at right angles to the 
street and the warehouse at right angles to the 
canal, enclosed two sides of a square, which was 



umbia and Sodus streets, on the site of Roe's 
store, stood what we called 'the green store,' 
kept by a man named Lewis. Overhead was a 
school. Whenever I go down that street my 
memory reverts to seventy-five years ago when 
I attended that school. It was taught by one 
named Westcott. one of the best educated men 
in the county. That corner was at one time one 
of the best localities for dry goods in the village, 
and several parties carried on the business there. 
It was also a great warehouse site. 

"In those days there were many more dry 
goods stores in Clyde than there are to-day. One 
of the earliest merchants that I can recall was 
Mr. Jonathan Bellamy who was in business with 
his son Frederick. His death was a great mis- 
fortune to Clyde. His son continued the busi- 
ness for many years afterwards. They bought 
the brick house where Mrs. John H. Ely now 
lives, on West Genesee street. I attended the 
family until they all died. The Bellamys were 
the largest business house in this section of the 



'GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



country for years. The farmers for miles away 
brought them their produce and traded with 
them. The Bellamys furnished the farmers 
money to carry on their farms until harvest and 
of course got their produce and trade. Their 
store in my earliest recollection, about 1837, was 
on the site of Roy Bros, store. The Bellamys 
were very nice people, a family that was very 
widely known and exceedingly well liked. Two 
members of the family became clergymen The 
family has entirely passed away. Jonathan and 
his wife died at about the same time. Julius 
died here about 1842. Frederick's widow went 
to Newark and married again. There were two 
young women who lived in the family and were 
educated by them One of them, Emeline Dan- 
forth, married a DeLaney, who became a grocer 
and well off. The other married a Whittlesey, a 
farmer, south of the village. She was the niece 
of Mrs. Bellamy, named Stiles before she mar- 
ried. The Bellamys came to Clyde from the 
town of Kingsbury, Washington county. 



mon. Seeing someone drive around the common 
after the fence was up (who boasted of being 
the first to do so) I determined that I would be 
the second, so I hitched up my nag to my fath- 
er's sulky and made the circuit as one would 
drive around a track. For some years after the 
people of the village pulled hair over the fence. 
A sentiment for taking it down was created. I 
suppose that was because they were shut out 
from a free pasture Then a party in favor of 
keeping up the fence arose. Subsequent boards 
of trustees discussed the question with consider- 
able gravity until finally a board was elected 
that removed the fence, about 1850. The old 
common had no trees, what you see there hav- 
ing been set out for ornament. While the fence 
was standing, two or three prominent citizens, 
Joseph Watson, a friend of mine for forty years, 
and Messrs. Kellogg and Munson, got up a town 
fair and the cattle and horses that were brought 
in for exhibition were tied to the fence around 
the common. 

"North of the common, on the corner, stood 






Russell, Photo. 



GLASGOW ST., EAST SIDE, NORTH FROM F. GENESEE ST. 



' 'At one time a large business was carried on 
by a Redfield, the older brother of a subsequent 
Redfield. Ford & Chapman were also here in 
trade. They were the pioneers of an all around 
business. 

"When my father located at Marengo it was 
a hamlet on the old stage road having a tavern, 
dry goods store, wagon shop, blacksmith shop. 
I can remember those old stage coaches for I 
have been on them many times. A well known 
driver for years was named Kingsley. When he 
drove through Marengo I usually took a ride on 
the box with him and we became very good 
friends. I grew up and became a practicing 
physician before he died and attended his fami- 
ly, which lived on Cross Island. 

"The earliest I remember of the park in this 
village it was a common where at night the vil- 
lagers turned loose their cows after milking. 
Paths led across from the four corners. North 
and South Park streets were laid out later, about 
.8143. Finally a fence was built around the com- 



the old Clyde hotel which was burned in 1883. 
After it was burned and rebuilt, my wife select- 
ed two seats at the table where we sat at our 
meals for fifteen years — at the same seats and 
at the same table. Next to the hotel was the 
office I occupied from 1849 to 1858 and next to 
that was Judge Ketcharrfs story-and-a-half brick 
house. Then came a vacant lot which was 
owned by the Seneca County Bank of Waterloo, 
to which the Episcopal church was moved from 
the east side of Glasgow street. Then came the 
Hinman house and two other dwellings, and then 
the Baptist church on the corner, which has 
since been changed on the outside only by build- 
ing on in front. 

Across the way was my residence which I have 
occupied ever since 1845 and which with some 
improvements and additions is the same building 
it was then. 

"INDIAN QUEEN." 

"On the corner where Terry's drug store 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



stands was once a famous tavern, with a grocery 
under it. I boarded in that tavern three years. 
It was called the 'Indian Queen' and was kept 
by Richard Wood His son, a grey-haired man, 
has just this moment passed by the house. 
Frank Wood, the barber, is a grandson. Rich- 
ard Wood was a skilled caterer. He got up ele- 
gant meals. He was famous for his corn beef. 
I have his receipt for it. 

"An old building stood just north of the 'In- 
dian Queen' which was a tavern when I was a 
boy It was kept by a man by the name of West. 

"On the site of the cold storage building at 
the foot of Lock street, stood two taverns dur- 
ing the days of canal packets One on the west 
side of the street was known as Goodchilds' and 
the property also contained a large warehouse. 
Harry Goodchilds was an Englishman, a hale 
fellow well met. I amputated an arm up in his 



"Taking the west side of Glasgow street (along 
in the forties of the last century), from Terry's 
corner, there stood, first, as I have mentioned, 
the 'Indian Queen' tavern, then next to that the 
small building in which years before a retired 
Methodist minister kept store. Eventually my 
brother-in-law, Perkins, had a tin shop there, 
the first regular tin shop in the village. This 
was about 1845. Next came the building in 
which West had kept the tavern North of 
West's was a small white building in which the 
Redfields had kept a dry goods store. Where 
John Stock's meat market now is 'Deck' Stone 
kept a grocery and a bar there at the time I am 
speaking of. 

TRAMPING JOURERS. 

"When I was a boy Whiting's shoe store was 
in the building on the site of Stock's market. 
He was one of our most prominent citizens. 
Men wore boots altogether in those days. Whit- 




Russell, Photo. 



ULASUOW ST.. WEST SIDE. SOUTH FROM S. PARK ST. 



tavern once. He had a good many boarders 
from the glass factory. The tavern across the 
way was run by Hall and Lundy. The old lock 
stood at that place and the taverns stood at op- 
posite ends of it. Many people coming by boat 
landed at this lock. The packet dock was 
down at the 'Indian Queen.' Hall & Lundy's 
tavern was burned at the time I was president 
of the village board of trustees. 

"On the south side of the lock was an old 
building which was a boarding house and west of 
that was a two-story brick boarding house. The 
Franklin house stood on the south side of the 
canal at the end of Sodus street bridge. A board 
walk led up to the entrance along the tow- 
path of the canal. Eventually, when they were 
building the railroad and enlarging the canal, the 
Franklin House people boarded the men engaged 
in that work. I was the president of the village 
when that burned. 



ing had his stock made up by tramping jourers 
who came along, and when they had finished 
making what he wanted left. I used to enjoy 
watching them at work. They were usually 
pretty tough citizens. Whiting was a pious man. 
He would often say when I came into the store 
intending to go into the work room: T wouldn't 
go in there, they are bad men. ' Whiting event- 
ually built the brick block next to Murphy & 
McElligott's. 

"On the site of Strauss's block," continued 
Dr. Colvin, "was a vacant lot and next north of 
it was the little building in which my father kept 
drug store— the first drug store in the village. 
Prior to that the dry goods stores usually kept a 
keg of epsom salts and a bottle of laudanum, but 
there had been no exclusive drug store in Clyde. 
I clerked in that store and it was invaluable ex- 
perience to me in materia medica. My father 
bought the vacant lots which I have mentioned 
with this building. He sold out to Canfield, who 



'GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 




Russell. Photo. 



SODUS ST., NORTH FROM W. GENESEE ST. 

was a queer man, a very fine man, but who be_ 
came a second Adventist and went out lecturing 
leaving me to run the store. Prior to my father 
the building was owned by a man named Smith, 
a tailor, whose father was a lawyer. 

"Across the canal, on the west side of Glas- 
gow street, stood a long, frame building known 
as the arcade, built by Dr. Dixon. He never 
finished the structure. It stood for years occu- 
pied by tenants. Dixon died with cholera in 1834. 
I don't recollect how late the Arcade was stand- 
ing. I know that in 1841 or '42 our band had 
rooms in it. What Dixon's plans were about the 
building I do not know, nor do I know that any 
one else had any idea of what he intended to 
build. I know he never finished putting in all 
the windows. When it burned people stood 
around not making themselves very active in 
saving it. Next to the Arcade, west along the 
canal, was an old building 
which at the time I speak 
of was occupied by a livery 
stable. The Bellamys in 
their time occupied it stor- 
ing goods. Then going west 
came the canal towing com- 
pany's barn and then next 
beyond the Franklin House. 

ROWBOATS IN GLASGOW ST. 

"Between the river and 
canal, ground that is now 
occupied by the railroad, its 
station and other buildings 
and the malt houses, was 
then a low place at times 
covered with water. I have 
seen all that ground covered 
with saw-logs. In fact I 
have seen saw-logs in the 
spring of the year during 
high water in Canal street. 
Tradition is that once two 
men rowed up to the Clyde 



Hotel in row boats from 
the river through Glasgow 
street, to get a drink. I 
have seen the whole of the 
village between Canal 
street and the high ground 
south of the river, from 
Mrs. Redfield's corners to 
the upper bridge, covered 
with water so that the canal 
and river were entirely lost 
in one expanse of sea. 

"On the shore of the river 
standing just east of Glas- 
gow street was a big grist 
mill, five stories high I 
think, and back of it down 
close to the river bank was 
a mineral spring. The 
power for the mill was ob- 
tained by a race. On the 
west side of Glasgow street 
were a carding mill, a saw 
mill and a fulling mill. The 
dam which crossed the river 
at that time was the cause 
of a good many lawsuits 
between Clyde and Lyons, 
owing to the setting back of the water at times. 
In the race that I have mentioned was a favorite 
swimming place when I was a boy. 

"I have mentioned the drug store and ware- 
house that stood on the site of the Thorne block 
and an alley next north of those buildings. On 
the north side of the alley when I first came 
here, was a single-story grocery owned by Wm. 
0. Sloan, who was also the grocer. Next to 
that, on the corner of Ford street, was first a 
dry goods store kept by Hiram Hovey. It event- 
ually became a saloon with a tailor shop up 
stairs Chet O'Neill, who recently died in Kan- 
sas City, ran the saloon. The buildings along 
the east side of Glasgow street in those days 
mostly had basements which were generally oc- 
cupied by saloons. The street was several feet 
below the present grade. When the sewer was 
built to empty the basin of the canal, which was 






Russell. Photo. 



WEST GENESEE ST.. WEST FROM REESE ST. 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



9 



put through Canal and across Glasgow streets 
it was ascertained that the old cordroy in Glas. 
gow street was sixteen feet below the surface. 

"On the Murphy & McElligott corner Ford & 
Chapman had a store along in 1843. Aaron Gris- 
wold was also in business there. Then north of 
that was Whiting's building, which I have al- 
ready mentioned, in which Robert Pennell kept 
a bookstore. James C. Atkins was also in that 
building at that time. Later he built where 
Sherman's drug store is. I have already spoken 
of the next building on the north in which the 
Ballamys did business, Next north of Bellamys' 
was where Lyman B. Dickerson had a hat store 
and made hats. He had a brother who was a 
hatter in Lyons. Lyme Dickerson died in 1841. 
Heman Dickerson then took charge of his busi- 
ness. Lyme had a hat maker working for him 
by the name of Jacob Scott and he was a skilled 
workman. Making hats in those days was a big 
business. I used to be greatly interested in 
watching Scott at his work. Next to Dickerson 



In a back room he served lunches— pork and 
beans, ale, beer, pie, crackers and cheese. At 
night before bedtime the clerks went in there to 
get a glass of ale with crackers and cheese. 
Businsss men found it a desirable place to obtain 
lunch and patronized it liberally. It was a clean, 
inviting place. Atkins, a typical landlord of the 
old English school, always kept the best and 
knew well how to please his customers. He died 
in the living rooms above, where I think a niece 
kept house for him for some time after his wife 
died. Before his death Atkins took into his place 
as a clerk a young Irish lad named Adams, and 
to him he willed all of his property. Adams was 
a bright boy of humble parents who, so far as 
was known, was in no way related to Atkins. I 
do not think they had the least acquaintance 
until Adarrs went thei*e to woi'k. But he was 
left with every dollar of a considerable fortune 
which Atkins at the time of his death possessed. 
It was a case in which Atkins had taken a sudden 
fancy to his clerk. I was one of Atkins' execu- 




Russell, Photo 



COLUMBIA ST , NOSTH SIDE, WEST FROM GLASGOW ST. 



was an alley, then came a two-story building oc- 
cupied by Gildersleeve, a tailor. A very nice 
sort of a man he was too. I rented an office in 
the upper room. This was in 1846. Next to 
Gildersleeve was a nice one-story building occu- 
pied by Charles D. Lawton, a lawyer. I knew 
him first when I was a stripling. I went through 
college and into practice and then became his 
physician. The little building where I boarded 
when I first came here and went to school was 
next north of Lawton 's office. On the site of 
that structure Atkins built a brick block and 
thereby hangs a tale. 

SCION OF ROYALTY. 

"This Atkins — James C. — was a character. 
After he had erected the brick block he opened 
a store, which for a medly of goods beat any- 
thing else in town. He kept toys, notions, 
cheese, bread and beer and occupied upper rooms 
for living quarters. This was along in the fifties. 



tors but I had no knowledge of his disposition of 
his property until after his death. It was pecu- 
liarly strange because Atkins was a very strong 
Episcopalian who was very active in the church, 
and everybody supposed that he would leave the 
church something, 

"The first time I remember to have seen At- 
kins was when I was a clerk in my father's drug 
store. He was a tall, fine looking Englishman, 
who claimed to have been a valet to King 
George the Fourth, or some other English mon- 
arch. I never knew whether that was so or not. 
He came into the store, as I have said, and 
asked me to trust him for some perfumery, or 
cosmetics, or something else of that sort. I re- 
plied that he was a stranger to me. I don't re- 
member what followed, only I know that he got 
trusted and paid up, as he always did. He was 
then running a barber shop down by the lock. 
As I have said, he became one of the most 
active of the Episcopalians. He was very pop- 



10 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



ular about town as well as in his church, was 
a fine talker and indeed was a distinguished look- 
ing man. Some time after I first met him he 
sent to the Old Country for his wife, and when 
the young fellows in town heard at what time 
she was expected they decided to give him, or 
her, a rousing welcome, sort of a chevari. At 
the last moment we gave it up, and we were 
glad afterwards that we did. When he brought 
his wife from the boat we observed that she was 
not the same makeup in appearance as he, and 
was not as prepossessing, so we felt that we 
would have been misunderstood had we made any 
demonstration. 

"In the earliest of my recollections the north- 
east corner of Glasgow and East Genesee streets 
was vacant property which extended east as far 
as Field's residence, where the building stood 
back in the lot. This property was owned by 
Dr. Lewis, a bright physician who died in 1834. 
When the building now occupied by Mr. Welch 
was built I cannot say. I had an office in the 



practice upon getting his diploma in 1844. He 
was then twenty-one years old. As he says, he 
was twelve years old when he came to Clyde. 
He was educated at Hobart College which at that 
time, he says, was one of the only two colleges 
in the state outside of New York city having a 
medical department. The other was Albany. 

Clyde, The Block-House.— A great deal of 
mystery has surrounded the old block house 
which was the earliest designation of the pres- 
ent site of Clyde village, as to why and by whom 
it was built. By searching the Documentary 
History of the State of New York the compiler 
of this Souvenir has learned the following: 

Gov. Burnett of the province of New York in 
1722 dispatched an expedition into the interior 
for the purpose of making a settlement or a 
trading post on Lake Ontario with the view of 
opening a fur trade with the western Indians 
and with instructions to buy a tract of land to 




Russell, Photo. 



COLUMBIA ST., NORTH SIDE, EAST FROM SODUS ST. 



second story in 1844. At that time there was 
a private school over the bank. The yellow front 
next north was built by Fred Terry's father and 
the father of Judge Saxton, who under the name 
of Saxton and Terry came here to manufacture 
coach lace. 

"Next north was a vacant lot on which the 
village had a small structure in which they 
housed the fire hand engine until they built the 
town hall. Then the property was sold to the 
Episcopalians, who erected on it a small wooden 
church. In the early forties they moved the 
church on to the lot now occupied by Dr. Barrett. 
On the present site of Field's furniture store 
Aldrich, a blacksmith, had a shop in 1834 or '5. 

"I well remember Ackley, the first Episcopa- 
lian clergyman a very fine, gentlemanly clergy- 
man he was. He was a grand reader. You 
would have been delighted to have heard him 
read. He went east." 

Dr. Colvin is a man of fine appearance and 
long years of successful practice. He began 



be patented by those who should be the first set- 
tlers there. The force sent on this perilous mis- 
sion consisted of Jacob Verplank, lieutenant, 
Gilleyn Verplank, Johannis Visger, Jr., Harman- 
us Schuyler, Johannis Van den Bergh, Peter 
Groenendyck and David Van der Heyden, all 
men distinguished in the early Dutch period of 
the colony and some whose names are of local 
significance in Wayne county. 

The expedition left Albany in the spring and 
returned in September. Peter Schuyler was the 
captain. In coming they took the usual route 
via Oswego and Lake Ontario, finally disembark- 
ing from their boats in Great Sodus Bay. The 
main object of their expedition was not accom- 
plished since the location was too far from the 
English settlements to be protected, the Dutch 
in those days, and English too, having incurred 
the enmity of the Seneca Indians, who at this 
time held full sway in this part of the province. 

During the summer that Capt. Schuyler's 
force was located on the bay a detachment of 



'GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



11 



three men and a small force of friendly Ononda- 
ga Indians who accompanied the party, were 
sent south into the great beech and hemlock 
woods which then screened the country lying in 
that direction from view from the lake, to re- 
connoiter. Schuyler had been informed that in 
a short march south was a broad river that 
opened the path to the east as far as Ouchougen 
(Oswego) by which there was communication by 
canoe between the Seneca (Genesee) country 
and the Oneidas and Onondagas. Foreseeing 
the advantage of a post of defence on that river 
at the most available point for communication 
between the river and the post he had estab- 
lished at Great Sodus Bay, Capt. Schuyler or- 
dered the party to put up a block house. 

On the eighth of July the three men, Lieuten- 
ant Verplank, Harmanus Schuyler and David 
Van der Heyden left the post on the bay and fol- 
lowing the east shore of the bay "five miles," 
struck into the woods. They were led by a 
friendly Onondaga Indian and in a few hours 
were upon the shore of the stream which the In- 



years later, and during the revolutionary war, 
more than fifty years afterwards. 

After peace had been declared between the 
American colonies and Great Britian the block 
house was continued in use by smugglers and 
maurauding British soldiers down to 1800 when 
the Government sent soldiers to clean them out, 
and during the fight the building was set on fire. 

The site of the old block house was on the 
north side of the river on the shore of a small 
stream which emptied into the larger one. To 
the little stream the Indians gave the name of 
"Little Waters." It was called by the early 
settlers Vanderbilt Creek. 

The Pultenay Estate was the largest land- 
ed possession in Wayne county where many of 
the farm titles come from its owner, who with 
two other capitalists purchased the lands from 
Robert Morris of Philadelphia. Mr. Morris 
bought from Phelps & Gorham 2,200,000 acres in 
western New York for which he paid thirty 








Russell, Photo. 



SOUTH PARK ST., EAST FROM SODUS ST. 



dians called Muddy waters, called by the earliest 
pioneers Mud Creek and named by one McNab, 
local agent for the Pultenay estate nearly a cen- 
tury later, Clyde river. The party spent a week 
on this detached service presumably mostly em- 
ployed in putting up the blook house, which of 
course was constructed of logs. Returning to 
the Bay they reported their success in rinding 
the river and building a block house. A few 
days later Capt. Schuyler receiving information 
of a forthcoming attack on his post by a party 
of French and Huron Indians abandoned the 
post at the Bay and marched across to "Mud 
Creek," where he took possession of the block 
house and prepared for a defense. He remained 
here only a week, however, then launching his 
canoe on the stream departed for the east guid- 
ed, as before, by the Onondagas. During his 
stay here he put the building into more perma- 
nent shape, and it afterwards served the purpose 
of defense for many bands of reds and whites 
that passed across this section, both during the 
French and Indian war with the English thirty 



thousand pounds, New York currency, equal to 
about $75,000. The Phelps and Gorham grant 
was originally made by the state of Massachu- 
setts, which claimed title to pretty much all of 
western New York under grant from the crown 
of Great Britain. After the revolution this 
claim was adjusted between the states of Mass- 
achusetts and New York, and Phelps & Gorham 
received a good title. Through an agent in Lon- 
don Mr. Morris sold a large part of this tract to 
Sir Wm. Pultenay, John Hornby and Patrick 
Colquhoun to whom he transferred the title to 
about 1,200,000 acres for thirty-five thousand 
pounds sterling, about $175,000. Subsequently, 
the three partners,' London men, divided the 
tract, Sir Wm. Pultenay' s share besides the 
lands comprised in the tract embracing portions 
of several counties, contained parts of the 
towns of Lyons, Galen and Wolcott in Wayne 
county amounting to about 80,000 acres. The 
title to the Pultenay estate was held in the name 
of Charles Williamson, who came from England 
as the accredited agent and in order to hold the 



12 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



title secured naturalization papers, the law of 
this country forbidding aliens to hold large tracts 
of land not actually settled by them. 

The Williamson, or Pultenay, title was con- 
tested for some years but was confirmed both by 
decrees of the courts and by legislative enact- 
ment. The headquarters, or land office, was for 
years at Geneva, and there the purchasers of 
farms (the tenants as they really were) had to 
go to make their periodical payments. What is 
now Wayne county was then divided between 
Seneca and Ontario counties. 

Mr. Williamson brought with him as agents or 
factors Charles Cameron, John Johnstone. James 
and Henry Tower, Andrew Snith and Hugh Mc- 
Cartney, men who undoubtedly have descendants 
still living in some parts of Wayne county, and 
whose names are conspicuous in the early history 
of the county. 

Cameron was in fact placed in charge of the 
lands during the earliest period of the settle- 



Thomas 1856; Bixby, Abel J 1860; Burnham, 
Edwin K 1885; Brinkerhoff, G W 1892. 

Chapin, Luther 1830; Corning, Joseph W 1861; 
Collins, Thaddeus W 1863-'5; Clark, Henry M 
1874; Clark, Wm H 1875; Crafts, Albert P 1880. 

Dickson, James 1824; Dickson, John J 1845; 
Durfee, Elias 1846; Durfee, Elihu 1850; Dutton, 
Wm 1852; Durfee, Lemuel 1863-'4; Durfee, Hen- 
ry R 1871; Davis, Barnet H 1886-'8. 

Eddy, Seth 1830-'l; Estes, Charles 1858. 

Filmore, Luther 1828; Foster, Reuben H 1836; 
Farnum, Amnion S 1884-'5. 

Graves. Henry K 1859; Glenn, E McKinney 
1868-'9: Gurnee, Emory W 1874, '76; Gates, Ad- 
dison W 1881; Greenwood, Wm E 1882; Groat, 
R P 1889-'91; Greenwood, M I 1898-'9; Griffith, 
Fred W 1900-'2. 

Hall, Ambrose 1826; Humeston, James 1832-'3; 
Holley, John M 1838, '41; Hyde, Harlow 1856; 
Hall, Amasa 1870; Hotchkiss, Leman 1883; 
Hough, John E 1893; Horton, G S 1894-'7. 




Russel'. Photo. 



WEST GENESEE ST., NORTH SIDE. EAST FROM FACTORS ST. 



ment, in the vicinity of Lyons and Clyde, where 
he acted as local agent. Some claim that he gave 
the name Clyde to the river after which this vil- 
lage is named. In 1803 or '4 Mr. Williamson re- 
turned to Scotland leaving Col. Benjamin Walk- 
er in charge of the estate. He was succeeded 
by John H. Woods of Geneva. Col. Robert 
Troup became their successor, as did also James 
Rees. Wm. Howe Cuyler was an agent for the 
lands lying in the northeast corner of the Wayne 
county tract. 

Assemblymen; Terms of Service: — Adams, 
Wm. H 1825; Armstrong, Thomas 1827-'9; '39; 
Alsop, Robert 1836; Arne Jr, David 1837; Archer, 
Orson 1867. 

Boynton, Jonathan 1827-'9; Bartle, Jas. P 1834; 
Benjamin, Elisha 1835; Blackman, Ebson 1838, 
'41; Boyce, Peter 1849; Bottum, Edward W 
1851; Bennett, John P 1854-'5, '90; Barnes, 



Johnson, Thomas 1857; Kip, John L 1826 
Knapp, Alanson M 1845. 

Lapham, John 1848; Leavenworth, Isaac 1849 
Laing, John A 1859; L'Amoreaux, Jabez S 1861 

Morse, Enoch 1825; Morley, Horace 1840 
Moore, Samuel 1847; Miller, James M 1878 
Munson, John A 1879. 

Norris, Elliott B 1891; Osband, Durfee 1840 
Pettit, Elisha 1848; Peacock, Joseph 1857; Pryne 
Abram 1862; Parshall, DeWitt 1868; Pierson 
Silas S 1884 

Roe, Austin 1844; Rogers, Wm. H 1865-'7 
Russell, Allen S 1875-'6; Robinson, Rowland 
1881. 

Salisbury, Ambrose 1832-'3, '39; Strong, The- 
ron R 1842; Sheffield, Frederick U 1843; Sours, 
Philip 1843; Sanford, Isaac R 1844; Southard, 
Israel R 1847; Streeter, Benj. H 1853; Sentell, 
Edward W 1858; Servis, James M 1860; Sher- 
man, Jefferson 1879-80; Saxton, Charles T 1887- 
'9; Smith, Addison P 1903-'5. 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



13 



Tucker, Pomeroy 1837; Thomas, Eron N 1862; 
Thornton, Merritt 1869; Thistlethwaite, Jere- 
miah 1877. 

Vandenburg, John 1866; Valentine. Jackson 
1877-'8. 

Whipple, Russell 1824, '34; Wells, Annanias 
1831; Wylie, Wm. D 1835; Wilson, James M 
1842, '50; Wisner, James T 1846, '55; Whitcomb, 
Loammi 1853; Wade, Willis G 1854; Wood, An- 
son S 1870-'l; Wells. Edward B. 1872-'3; Weed, 
Oscar 1882-'3; Wood, William 1886; Whitcomb, 
Flynn 1892. 

Yeomans, Theron G 1851-'2; Yeomans, Lucien 
T 1872-'3. 

State Engineer from Wayne Co.: — Van 
Rensselaer Richmond, Nov. 3, 1857 (elected) ; 
served until Jan. 1, 1870. 



and Essex which was laid out in twelve towns, 
bringing- the total number up to 60. Each was 
laid out as nearly square as practical, averaging 
about 9' 2 ;! miles square and containing each 100 
lots of 600 acres to the lot or a total of 60,000 
acres. 

The towns in the first military tract, compris- 
ing Galen were numbered and given classical 
names all of which have been retained (as far as 
the supply would go) in the re-constituted towns. 
Except where they coincided with county lines, 
none of the original boundaries were preserved, 
each "military" town supplying territory for 
two or three re-organized towns. The only 
"military" town overlapping a county line is 
that of Sterling which contributed territory for 
both Wayne and Cayuga counties. The number- 
ing of the town? began with Lysander (in Onon- 




Russell. Photo. 



VILLAGE SCENERY. 



The Park, north from Glasgow and So. Park St. 
De Zeng St. west from Sodus St. 

Military Tract.— The legislature by the act 
of July 25, 1782, created the Old Military Tract 
as it was called. It contained 1,800,000 acres 
and included the present counties of Onondaga, 
Cortland, Cayuga, Tompkins and Seneca (except 
a strip across the southern end of Cortland coun- 
ty, west from the Tioughnioga river, about a 
mile and a half wide) , and all of Wayne county 
■east of Great Sodus Bay and Oswego county 
west of the Oswego river. 

In this tract there were 28 townships, called 
"Military towns" to distinguish them from the 
towns afterwards created in erecting the coun- 
ties enclosing them. 

In 1786 the legislature created a military tract, 
768,000 acres in the counties of Clinton, Franklin 



Columbia St. west from Lock St. 
D<- Zeng St. west from Galen St. 

daga county) near the northeast corner of that 
tract (the second "military" town south of Lake 
Ontario) and was carried south going from east 
to west. 

The towns, placed in the order in which they 
were numbered, together with the counties 
which have since absorbed them, are as follows: 
No. 1, Lysander, Onondaga; 2, Hannibal, Oswe- 
go; 3, Cato, Cayuga; 4, Brutus, Cayuga; 5, 
Camillus, Onondaga; 6, Cicero, Onondaga; 7, 
Manlius, Onondaga; 8, Aurelius, Cayuga; 9, 
Marcellus, Onondaga; 10, Pompey, Onondaga; 
11, Romulus, Seneca; 12, Scipio, Cayuga; 13, 
Sempronious, Cayuga; 14, Tully, Onondaga; 15, 
Fabius, Onondaga; 16, Ovid, Seneca; 17, Milton, 
Cayuga; 18, Locke, Cayuga; 19, Homer, Cort- 



14 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



land; 20, Solon, Cortland; 21, Hector, Schuyler; 
22, Ulysses, Tompkins; 23, Dryden, Tompkins; 
24, Virgil, Cortland; 25, Cincinnatus, Cortland; 
26, Junius, Seneca; 27, Galen, Wayne; 28, Ster- 
ling, Wayne and Cayuga. 

The Federal government having offered lands 
in the west to the soldiers of the revolution, 
the state laid out the military tracts to keep as 
many here as possible, offering a bonus of 100 
acres to privates who would relinquish their 
western claims and accept this offer of 600 acres 
of land in this state before July 1, 1790. The 
state reserved in each town two lots for schools, 
two for churches and two to be distributed 
among commissioned officers. The allotment of 
lands was to be made by drawing. 

In default of a settlement on each 600 acres 
within seven years the land was to revert to the 



The earliest settlement of the Military Tract 
was on the east shore of Cayuga lake, and so far 
as records go the settlers were the family of 
Roswell Franklin near Aurora, Cayuga county, 
who came up from Wysax, Penn. , by boat, fol- 
lowing the Susquehanna and Tioga rivers to 
Newtown (Elmira) thence crossing to the head 
of Seneca lake; thence by boat through that lake 
and Seneca river to Cayuga lake. 

Sod us Ray was early regarded as one of the 
finest harbors on the great lakes. The bay en- 
ters a cove of the lake protected on either hand 
by headlands. Across its neck is about half a 
mile. Inland it widens to the distance of four 
miles. Its length from north to south is nearly 
seven miles. The site of the town proposed by 




Bussell, Photo. 



FINE RESIDENCE STREETS. 



Caroline St., east between Sodus and Glasgow Sts. 
Caroline St., west from Factory St. 

state. Fifty acres of each lot called the "survey 
fifty" was subject to the charge of forty-eight 
shillings ($6.00) to pay for surveying, and if that 
were not paid in two years the "survey fifty" 
was to be sold. Compliance with these two main 
conditions gave the patentee full title to the. 
whole 600 acres. 

The distribution of lots occurred July 3, 1790, 
under the direction of the governor, lieutenant- 
governor and four state officers. The names of 
the claimants of the land were placed on ballots 
in one box and numbers corresponding to the 
allotments were placed on ballots in another box. 
The person appointed by the commissioners first 
drew the ballot containing the number of the lot; 
in which manner each claimant's allotment was 
determined. 



Caroline St., west from Lock St. 
Lock St., south from De Zeng St. 

Charles Williamson, American agent for the 
Pultenay estate, was the headland on the west 
side of the bay. Mr. Williamson in 1793 wrote of 
the scenery as follows: "The first view of the 
place after passing through a timbered country 
from Geneva, twenty-eight miles, strike the eye 
of the beholder as one of the most magnificent 
landscapes human fancy can picture; and the 
beauty of the scene is not infrequently height- 
ened by the appearance of large vessels naviga- 
ting the lake." 

Sodus Bay was first selected for a settlement 
by Charles Williamson as the most feasible point 
for the shipment of the products of his large 
tract of country to the seaboard by an all water 
route, in 1794, at which time he cut roads from 
Palmyra and Phelps north to Sodus. 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



15 



The survey of the proposed town was at once 
begun by Joseph Colt, who laid out a broad 
street, with a large public square, between the 
falls on Salmon creek and the anchorage on the 
Bay. The lots inside of the proposed corpora- 
tion contained a quarter of an acre to a lot and 
those outside ten acres. The in-lots, as the first 
were called, were to be sold at $100 each and the 
out-lots at four dollars an acre. The farming 
lands in the vicinity were to be offered at $1.50 
an acre. Thomas Little and one named Moffit 
were appointed the agents for the locality A 
Tiouse for the tavern was erected at the cost of 
over $500 and was opened by Moses and Jabez 
Sill. Mills were erected at the falls on Salmon 
Creek and wharfs on the bay and a large boat 
was launched upon the bay. The cost of the im- 
provements for the first two years was $20,000. 



this place stands unrivalled; and perhaps no 
place in America can equal it. Fish of various 
kinds, many of them from the ocean, can be had 
at pleasure and a species of soft shelled turtle 
(weighing as much as above 20 pounds) may be 
procured in plenty, little inferior to the green 
turtle brought from the West Indies. ' ' 

Clyde in 1815-The Old Map made for Major 
Frederick De Zeng when the North Side of the 
River was Uninhabited Gives the Names of 
Every Land Owner Here; Not a Dozen Fami- 
lies Lived on the South Side of the River: — 
When there was no Clyde village and Block- 
house was only a small frontier hamlet with not 
more than a dozen families, all of whom lived 




Russell, Photo. 



PRETTY STREETS. 



De Zeng St., west from Glasgow St. 

Sodus St., west side, north from Caroline St. 

Little or nothing more was ever done to promote 
this big scheme. Ague and fever and the Brit- 
ish invasion during the war of 1812 put at end to 
Sodus as a large shipping point. 

Charles Williamson writing of the proposed 
town on Sodus Bay in 1796 says: "This place is 
situated on a bay of the same name, which is 
well known as the best harbor on the south side 
of Lake Ontario. Few or none, even on the sea- 
coast, exceed it for spaciousness and beauty. 
The town stands on rising ground, on the west 
point of the bay, having the lake on the north, 
to appearance boundless as the ocean, and the 
bay to the east romantically intersected with 
islands and parts of the mainland stretching into 
it. Amongst the variety of fish all must yield to 
Sodus; for fishing, fowling, sailing or hunting 



Lock St., north from De Zeng St. 
Glasgow St., north from De Zeng St. 

south of the river, Maj. Frederick De Zeng came 
up from the settlements on the south and set the 
surveyors at work mapping the locality for a 
village. The map, an old yellow document, now 
in the possession of DeLancy Stow, shows that 
it was in 1815. 

It was the year 1810 that the Sodus street 
bridge was projected according to the statement 
of Mr. L. Redfield made to Joseph Watson, as 
will be seen by reference to Betsey King's rem- 
iniscences elsewhere in this work. 

Maj. De Zeng having bought lot No. 45 of W. 
McLouth, south of the river, and a tract of 72 
acres north of it, determined to stimulate the 
settlement by breaking into the wilderness at 
this point with surveyor's instruments. Besides, 
he had chosen his mill sites at this place and 



16 



'GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



that was another reason why he should get peo- 
ple here to live. He was one of the leading 
spirits in several land opening projects and was 
in a company which was about to engage in the 
opening of internal waterways across the new 
State of New York; and the Clyde river, then 
known by the Indians as Muddy stream and by 
the whites as the Canandaigua outlet, which 
was one of the main avenues into the interior 
west of the Oswego river, he considered the fa- 
vorable course to be followed for a canal which 
he knew was to be projected, and which was 
authorized by the Legislature some seven years 
later. 

The Major's surveyors ran two streets north 
and south from the river, which are known on 
the north side as Glasgow »nd Sod us streets and 
on the south side as Mill and Waterloo streets. 
Mill street was so called because of the two mills 
which he put up on the river, the grist mill on 
the south side and the saw mill on the north side, 
both on the west line of Glasgow street and close 
to the river. At that period the grist all came 



of De Zeng's. They were owned respectively by 
J. Slaght and T. Vanderbilt, each containing 
fifty acres, and a Mr. Frisbie, fifty-seven acres. 
South of the river the landowners of Block- 
house at that time were the following: From 
the west along the river front to Waterloo street 
were E. Dean, two lots, W. Mynderse, bne lot, 
and W. W. McLouth, one lot, and on the corner 
of Waterloo and Water streets D. Vanderbilt a 
lot. Between Water street and the river and 
Waterloo and Mill streets was a single lot owned 
by J. Dickson. De Zeng reserved a large open lot 
east of Mill street, and south and east of him 
were tracts of open land owned by Messrs. 
Nicholas and J. DicKson. The latter, J. Dickson, 
owned the lot between Waterloo and Mill streets 
and Water and Geneva streets. He also owned 
a lot south of Geneva street, and south of him 
was a large lot reserved in the center of the vil- 
lage by Major De Zeng. Along the west side of 
Waterloo street south of Geneva, extending 
along both streets south and west, the lots were 
owned by J. E. West, E. Shirts, W. Andrews, 




Russell, Photo. 



WEST GENESEE ST., SOUTH SIDE, WEST FROM FACTORY ST. 



from south of the river and the timber to be cut 
up principally from the north side where there 
was then nothing else but woods. Waterloo 
street was the highway or post road then leading 
south to Waterloo and the settlements in that 
part of the state. Sodus street led to the north 
to Sodus Bay. One east-and-west road was laid 
out north of the river, then scarcely more than 
a trackless opening. It is now Genesee street. 
An east-and-west street crossed Mill and Water- 
loo streets south of the river. It is called Water 
street. Farther south was Geneva street. The 
above seven streets were the only streets in the 
village at that time. 

The only lots platted on this map lay south of 
the river and back as far as the bend in Water- 
loo street between that street and Mill street, 
with one tier along the west side of Waterloo 
street and tiers on both sides of Geneva street. 

All of the tract now including the village plat 
north of the river was owned by Frederick De 
Zeng. Three narrow strips of open country 
running north from the river were on the east 



W. D. Wolf, J. Work, J. Tyler, W. Garrett and 
R. Jones, Lying along the river east of Mill 
street were two large tracts of unsettled land 
owned by J. McLouth and L. Fuller. 

This was the entire list of property owners at 
Blockhouse in 1815. A few years later Wm. 
Steuben De Zeng, a son of the Major, bought all 
of his father's property here and he it was who 
caused to be laid out the village of Clyde. 

Before the north side of the river was built up 
there was a brook which took its rise in a spring 
and flowed east into Vanderbilt creek on the east 
side of the village. The spring was between 
Glasgow and Sodus streets near the malt house, 
and the course of the creek was through the 
ravine that was filled up when the railroad came 
through, following pretty much the present line 
of the canal. The canal in fact receives the 
spring direct through its bed, the place being 
indicated by the bubbling of the water. 

Clyde village corporation was originally one 
mile square but was afterwards raised to two 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



17 




REV. V. N. YERGIN. 

miles square. It was then reduced to a mile and 
a half square. 

The McLouth tract comprised Lots 31 and 46. 
It was whittled down and was finally known as 
the Adams farm. 

The corporation of Clyde included the Military 
lots, Nos. 31 in the north-western section of the 
corporation, 32 in the north-east, 45 in 
the south-west and 46 in the south-east. 
No. 31 was drawn by John Smedes, a 
surgeon's mate, 32 by Isaac Ledyard, a 
surgeon, and 46 by Staph McRae, also 
a surgeon. No. 45 was the school and 
gospel reserve, as was also No. 33 on 
the east of the village. 

The Presbyterian church was "in- 
stituted" July 8, 1814, by the Rev. 
Francis Pomeroy of Lyons, N. Y. , and 
the Rev. Hypocrates Roe, of Palmyra, 
N. Y. On July 9 the church was regu- 
larly organized with the following char- 
ter members: Samuel Garlic, Ezra 
Lewis, Erastus Wilder, William Diddie, 
John Grow, Nabby Lewis and Sally 
Grow; Messrs. Garlic, Lewis and Wilder 
were elected ruling elders; the latter 
was also elected to the office of deacon, 
and on the following Sunday, July 10, 
they were all duly installed. 

Captain Luther Redfield was duly in- 
stalled as an elder Sept. 4, 1825, and 
Dr. A. F. Hendricks attained a like 
position, and was ordained as such De- 
cember 23, 1832. 

About the year 1828 a Covenanters or 
Scotch Presbyterian church was formed, 
but its life was short and uneventful, 
and the organization was soon given up 
and its members returned to the mother 
church. 

The first settled pastor, the Rev. 
Charles Mosher, was installed July 13, 
1820. In 1825 he made the address of 
welcome when Governor DeWitt Clin- 
ton passed through the village on the 



"Young Lion of the West," the first canal boat 
that passed through Clyde. 

During the first years succeeding the organ- 
ization, the services were held in the school 
house south of the river, that side being known 
as the Lauraville District. Subsequently, until 
the erection of a house of worship, the services 
were held in the second story of the building on 
the corner of Geneva and Waterloo streets, now 
owned and occupied by J. E. Cotton and family. 

The corner stone of the first church edifice was 
laid with appropriate exercises in August 1829, 
and dedicated the latter part of the same year, 
under the ministerial leadership of the Rev. B. 
F. Pratt, who served as stated supply from 
December 1, 1825, to July 4, 1830. It was a 
frame building and cost $5,500. It occupied the 
same place as the present edifice, but faced east. 
The foundation was very high, so that the audi- 
torium was reached by a wide flight of twelve or 
fifteen steps. It is described as nearly square, 
and presented a barnlike appearance, with two 
rows of small windows, galleries on the north and 
south sides, and the pulpit in the east end. It 
was ornamented with a large square tower, in 
which was the town clock; above the tower was 
an hexagonal spire with five balconies; on the 
very top was a weather vane, the whole sur- 
mounted with a lightning rod of ancient pattern. 
During the last years of this edifice the music of 
the congregation was led by an orchestra which 
occupied a platform at the east end and was 
composed of Mr. Wm. Munn, who played the bass 
viol, Moses Munn, violin, J. T. Vanbuskirk, flute, 




THE PRESBYTERIAN'CHURCH. 



18 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



while Mrs. Dr. E. M. Roffee presided at the 
melodeon. 

In March, 1870, the Rev. Mr. J. R. Young, the 
pastor, during" whose incumbency the new church 
was conceived, erected and dedicated, preached 
three most suggestive and stimulating sermons 
on "Religious Prosperity," in which he showed 
that it was impossible to do the Lord's work 
successfully amid unfavorable surroundings. 
Dui'ing the delivery of these discourses Mr. 
Young made no reference to the necessity of a 
new church in Clyde, but at the conclusion of 
the third sermon he requested the people to 
meet him on the following evening. At the hour 
appointed, though the attendance was not large, 
there was a fairly good representation of the 
congregation; and before the meeting adjourned 
Ten Thousnnd dollars had been subscribed toward 
the erection of a new edifice! The total cost of 
the church was about $30,000. On the day of 



Gothic in style standing north and south, length 
ninety-nine feet, width thirty-five feet. The 
front is surmounted by two towers, one 140 feet 
and the other 85 feet in height The base of the 
towers are about fifteen feet square. 

On April 25, 1870, the building committee 
adopted the plan for the new church. The fol- 
lowing June the destruction of the old structure 
began. First the steeple above the bell was 
sawed off and pulled over. Hundreds assembled 
to see it fall, many securing pieces of timbers 
as relics. The bell was then lowered and the 
balance of the steeple pulled down. The rest of 
the building quickly went the same way. On 
August 25, 1870, the corner stone of the new 
church was laid with appropriate ceremonies. 
The dedication occurred over a year later, Nov. 
16, 1871. 

By means of festivals and entertainments the 
ladies raised the money with which to purchase 




Loaned by Adelaide Conklin. RAILROAD YARDS IN 1860. 

Old Water Tank and Wood Yard— Old Time Locomotive— Seen after a Blizzard. 



dedication $3,000 more was raised. During the 
year the church was building a great revival was 
in progress, and on April 2, 1871, seventy-eight 
were received into the church. On Wednesday 
evening, April 25, 1870, his friends gave Mr. 
Young a donation of $200, $150 of which he gave 
to the organ fund, and the balance to the gen- 
eral building fund, notwithstanding he had 
already given $200 and afterwards gave $150 
more. 

The building committee comprised Moses Munn, 
George O. Baker, Moody Dennington, Stephen 
Streeter and Thomas Smith, of which Mr. Munn 
was chairman until his death, when George O. 
Baker, Esq., was chosen to that position. S. H. 
Briggs was elected treasurer of the building 
fund, and J. M. Nichols collector of the same. 

On April 25, 1870, the building committee 
adopted the plans for the new church. It is 



the organ and other church furnishings. The 
organ cost $3,000. 

Rev. Alfred C. Roe, the first pastor after the 
church was completed, arrived in 1873 and served 
four years as pastor. The pastorate of the Rev. 
R. E. Wilson was the longest, during which time 
the parsonage was built, largely the gift of 
Gen. Charles P. Kingsbury of Watertown, Mass., 
in memory of his mother. Other contributors 
were Moody Dennington, Rev. Robert E. Wil- 
son, Nathan Hovey, Isaac Miller, Mary Kings- 
bury, Adaline Ely, Thomas J. Whitney and Syl- 
vanus J. Sayles. The deed for the parsonage 
bears date Jan. 1, 1869. Before the parsonage 
was completed Mr. Wilson fell down the steps to 
the entrance improvised of boxes, and broke a 
leg from the effects of which he never recovered. 



'GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



19 



The pastorate of Rev. W. H. Bates was the 
next longest, twelve years. On his departure 
he was remembered with some valuable gifts. 

The pastorate of Rev. J. Calvin Mead, D. D., 
continued nearly four years, during which time 
the church was renovated and frescoed at a cost 
of nearly $1,000. 

During the closing year of the pastorate of 
Rev. Dr. Strong, 1880, the indebtedness of the 
society, $9,000, was cancelled. 

Dr. Bates and Dr. Mead are the only ex-pas- 
tors living. The former resides at Clifton 
Springs and supplies important pulpits. The 
latter is the pastor of Bethesda Presbyterian 
church, Philadelphia. Mrs. Alfred C. Roe is liv- 
ing in the old Wickham homestead at Mansfield, 
Vt. Both her daughters are missionaries, while 
the only son is in business in Brooklyn, N Y. 
Judge Robert N. Wilson, the only son of the 
Rev. R. E. Wilson, lives in Philadelphia. Rev. 
Courtney H. Fenn, a grandson, is a missionary 
at Peking, China. Mrs. Dr. Strong lives with 



rear of the church to the side of the pulpit; elec- 
tric lighting has been installed, individual com- 
munion cups introduced, and new hymn books 
purchased; the sheds have been repaired and put 
in first class condition, and the Manse has been 
painted inside and out. The church is united and 
happy, and why should it not be when such sub- 
stantial prosperity attends their labors? 

Pastors and their Terms of Service: (From 1809 
to 1819 itinerante missionaries preached, the 
church being organized July 8, 1814) :— 1819— '22, 
Rev. Chas. Mosher, P. 1823-'4, Rev. Jabez 
Spicer, S. S. 1825-'30, Rev. B. F. Pratt, S. S. 
1831-'2, Rev. C. TenEyke, S. S. 1832-'3, Rev. 
Jas. Boyle, and Rev J. C. Moore, S. S. 1833-'5, 
Rev. Maltby Gelston, P. 1836-'9, Rev. Josiah 
Fisher, S. S. 1840, Rev. John Gray, S. S. 1841, 
Rev. Jas. Barney, S. S. 1842-'7, Rev. S. J. M. 
Beebe, P. 1848, Revs. S. J Parker, S. S. and 
J. W. Ray. 1849-'55. Rev. John Ward, P. 1856- 
'69, Rev. Robt. E. Wilson, P. I870-'2, Rev. J. 
R. Young, S. S. 1873-'6, Rev. Alfred C. Roe, 




Loaned by Adelaide Conklin. 



RIVER FRONT IN 1840. 



Flood Scene— Canal and River Overflowed — Ravine in Foreground full of Water. 



her daughter, Bessie, who was the organist dur- 
ing her father's pastorate and whose husband, 
Rev. Arno Moore, is preaching to the mountain 
whites at Huntsville, Tenn. Miss Fanny Strong 
went to Peking, China, as a missionary and 
there married Rev. John N. B. Smith of Ningpo, 
China, who is now pastor at Page, N. D. Helen, 
the youngest daughter, is the wife of Prof. 
Campbell of Essex Falls, N. J., while the only 
son, Rev. E. K. Strong, is the efficient and 
highly esteemed pastor of the Trinity Presbyte- 
rian church, San Francisco, Cal. 

At the beginning of the present pastorate the 
membership of the church was 201; there have 
been received into fellowship 206, but the losses 
by death and removal are so great that the pres- 
ent membership is only about 240. During this 
pastorate the property has been greatly im- 
proved, the exterior of the church having been 
beautifully and substantially stained and painted; 
the auditorium and lecture room have been re- 
carpeted; the organ has been moved from the 



P. 1877, Vacant. 1878-'9, Rev. A. K. Strong, 
D.D., P. 1880-'91, Rev. W. H. Bates, D D., P. 
1892-\5, Rev. J. C. Mead, D.D.,P. 1896- (pres. 
ent), Rev. V. N. Yergin, P. 

The present pastor is Rev. Vernon Yergin. 

Board of Ruling Elders: — William D. Munn, 
ordained March 15, 1849; M. Coleman Syron, or- 
dained Dec. 10, 1871; Derrick Douglass, or- 
dained Jan. 25, 1891; A L. Ketchum, ordained 
March 26, 1891; George A. Brown, ordained 
Dec. 31, 1891; John Benning, ordained Dec. 29, 
1895; F. P. Munn, ordained Jan. 26, 1902. 

Deacons: — Albert A. Ketchum, ordained Dec. 
19, 1877. 

Trustees: — Alex. Graham, George A. Brown, 
E. B. Palmer, Edwin Sands, A. L. Ketchum, 
William McMath, H. T. Lee. Treasurer, Lloyd 
Stevens. 

Officers of the Sunday School:— John Benning, 
superintendent; E. Q. Corrin, chorister; Miss 
Helen M. Syron, secretary, treasurer and pianist; 



20 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 




REV. C. A. NUTTING. 

A. L. Van Tassel, Dr. Eber Inman, Guy Van 
Winkle, librarians. 

Women's Missionary Society: — Mrs. V. N. 
Yergin, president; Mrs. I. H. Syron, Mrs. E. 
M. Roffee, vice-presidents; Miss B. B. Ryerson, 
treasurer; Mrs. J. H. Inman, secretary; Mrs. 
Rose Baker, secretary of literature. 

Ladies' Aid Society:— Mrs. E. R. Bockoven, 
president; Mrs. Lloyd Stevens, vice-president; 
Mrs. A. L. Van Tassel, secretary and treasurer. 

Y. P. S. C. E. :— Miss Grace M. Barrett, pres- 
ident; A. W. Yergin, vice-president; Miss Jose- 
phine Francisco, secretary; 
Miss Nellie Bettles, treas- 



Judges of Wayne coun- 
ty; in alphabetical order; 
date of taking office and 
terms served. [They were 
common pleas judges until 
1846]— Adams, Wm. H., 
May 12, 1846; Cowles, G. 
W., 1864— '9, '74- '9, '86; 
Collins, T. W., 1880— '5; 
Hallett, J. W., April 19, 
1825; Jerome, Hiram K., 
Jan. 29, 1840; Ketchum, 
Leander, 1852— '9; Middle- 
ton, G. H., June, 1847; Mc- 
Louth, C, 1869; Norton, L. 
M., 1870- '3; Palmer, O. 
H., April 12, 1843; Sisson, 
Wm., Jan. 30, 1830; Sher- 
wood, Lyman, 1860 — '3, 
Sawyer, S. N., 1898— 
1909; Tiffany, A. R., March 
28, 1827. 

The First Birth in Ga- 
len, before it was erected 
as a town, was Isaac God- 
frey, born February 1, 
1802. 



First Baptist Church— The earliest preach- 
ing in this denomination at Clyde was in a school- 
house on the south side of the river about 1817. 
Among the earliest of the clergy who preached 
here for any length of time was Rev. Joseph 
Potter who was here about 1819 and '20 It was 
some years later, however, before the church 
was organized and there was regular preaching. 
The organization of that time continued down to 
1861, when owing to the falling off of member- 
ship the denomination suffered a decline that re- 
sulted in its dissolution. Some time after Rev. 
Joseph Porter was here came Rev. Jared Blake- 
man who was the first regular pastor of that so- 
ciety. In 1832 James Dickson made a gift to the 
church of the site which has since been occupied 
by the Baptist church structure, and the same 
year witnessed the beginning of the construc- 
tion of the building which was not completed 
until the following year. This church was used 
by the old society until it broke up. After the 
present organization was formed it was some 
time before it obtained possession of the old 
building. Following Rev. Jared Blakeman the 
pastors of the old society were as follows:— Rev. 
Luke Morley, who was the first to preach in the 
church building, 1832— '7; Rev. Benjamin Put- 
nam, here one year; Rev. E. J. Maxwell until 
1842; Rev. J. Mitchell, here until April, 1844; 
Rev. Wm. E. Webb, until April, 1846; Rev. J. 

B. Vrooman, until Feb. 1850; Rev. Wm. I. Loomis, 
from June, 1850, only a short time; Rev. S. B. 
Gilbert, until Feb. 1855; Rev. Wm. Cormac, 
from April, 1855, for two years; Rev. H. D. 
Cooley, from July, 1857, here one year; Rev. W. 

C. Hubbard, from May, 1858, here one year. 
The first clerk of the old society was Stephen 

Hull; the others in the order named were Jona- 
than Bellamy, E. Canfield, J. S. L'Amoreaux, S. 
J. Lape, Daniel Saxton, C. C. Ellis, J. Y. An- 
drews. Among the earliest of the deacons of 




Loaned by Mrs. Carrie German. 

THE BAPTIST CHURCH. 



'GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



21 



that time were Joel Blakeman, Jonathan Bella- 
my, Stephen Hiel, Asahel Ticknor, Tunis Smith, 
S. J. Lape. Hiram Burton, E. Canfield, James 
Slack, A. Waterbury and Daniel Osborne. 



REV. C. H. MOSCRIPT. 
Former Pastor Baptist Church. 

On Sept. 10, 1864, fifty persons, members of 
the old Baptist organization in this village, met 
in Perkins' hall and effected a strong Baptist 
church organization. Rev. Wm. H. Steeger was 
the chairman and John Bostwick the clerk. 
Those elected trustees were A. Devereaux, P. 
Sloan, B. Jones, J. Vandenburg and J. S. L'Amo- 
reaux; deacons, Lafontaine Russell and Hiram 
Burton; treasurer and collector, A. Delaney. 
For a few years the meetings were held in the 
hall. Then a member of the church bought a 
half interest in the church building on Caroline 
street, now the Free Metbodist church but then 
not in use, and the Baptist church society wor- 
shipped there until 1870 when they secured the 
Baptist church structure on the corner of Sodus 
and North Park streets and returned to the 
building where they belonged. In 1877 the 
church was repaired and refurnished at a cost of 
$4,000 including the construction of the new 
front, which gave it a new and much improved 
appearance. 

John Bostwick was the first clerk of the new 
society and then followed N. P. Colvin, Reuben 
Harper and George A. Brown down to 1878. The 
deacons down to the same year were Ashahel 
Ticknor, Hiram Burton, Chester Smith, Lafon- 
taine Russell, Prosper Sloan and Mark Canning. 
Among those who served as trustees were G. C. 
Thompson, Mathew Mackie, A. N. DeLaney, 
Reuben Bui'ton, Alfred Sloan and Abram 
Knight. 

Immediately following the close of Rev. An- 
drew Wilkins' pastorate, in March 1876, a youth 
in age and appearance was called to the pulpit 
for a Sunday pending supply. Rev. Charles H. 
Moscript was his name, then pursuing his studies 
at the Rochester Theological Seminary and una- 
ble to give much of his time to the church. En- 
gaging in manners and intellectual he easily led 
the church and also aided the movement in build- 
ing and improvements which had begun before 
he came upon the field. We find that in a busi- 
ness meeting, March 17, 1877, he acted as clerk 
and there presented resolutions calling for the 
remodelling of the church and the election of a 
building committee, which upon being chosen 
consisted of Amos N. DeLany, P. S. Sloan, A. 
F. Devereaux, G. A. Brown and H. Kelly. The 
work went on immediately and upon the comple- 
tion and dedication of the remodeled edifice, Oct. 
3, 1877, a new era in the church was opened. C. 
H. Moscript was ordained the following day, 



Oct. 4, by a council of the Baptist church of 
Wayne county. The month previous Mr. Moscript 
had transferred his membership from a church 
at Saratoga Springs to this church, and had ac- 
cepted the call to be its regular pastor; and no- 
ticeably conforming to a habit or co-ordination 
of important events in biography of Baptist min- 
isters, he married — at about this time — Belle, the 
daughter of the foremost family of the church, 
A. N. DeLany. Dr. Moscript, now preaching in 
the eastern part of the state, is an author of 
several books published by the American Baptist 
Publication Society. 

At the time the affairs of the society were at 
low ebb the Rev. J. B. Vrooman, who had been 
pastor of the old organization, wrote from his 
home at Point Chautauqua offering to place his 
services and means at the disposal of the church 
with the result that he was called and was here 
from 1883 to 1890. He aided in the firm estab- 
lishment of the church society by sound counsel 
and ripe judgment. He died July 5, 1891, at the 
age of 78 years. 

The pastors- Rev. Wm. H. Stieger, 1862-'o; 
Rev. T. Spencer Harrison, Nov. 5, 1865 to March, 
1867; Rev. Volney O. Page, August 1867 to 
April 1869; Rev. T. H. Green, July 1869 to July 
1870; Rev. J. Reynolds, May 1872 to July 1873; 
Rev. Andrew Wilkins, Sept. 1873 to Feb. 1876, 
Rev. C. H. Moscript, May 1876 to Oct. 1878; 
Rev. Frank L. Wilkins, Oct. 1878 to March 1879; 
Rev. J. C. Thomas, May 1879 to June 1881; Rev. 
W. H Latourette, June 1881 to April 1882; Rev. 
L. B. Albert, May 1882 to May 1883; Rev. J. B. 
Vrooman, Dec. 1883 to Jan. 1890; Rev. J. H. 
Caughn, May 1890 to May 1891; Rev. C. H. 
Howes, Sept. 1891 to April 1895; Rev. James 
Thorn, June 1895 to May 1896; Rev. Mr. Negus, 
June 1896 to July 1896; Rev. G. W. Strutt, Sept. 
1896 to Nov. 1898; Rev. P. E. Ogden, Nov. 1898 
to April 1899; Rev. C. W. Bachelder, April 1899 
to Oct. 1900; Rev. G. Leroy Hall, Jan. 1901 to 
March 1904; Rev. C. A. Nutting, the present 
pastor, came in May, 1904. 

Alton — The proposal to erect the town of 
Alton was made to the Legislature in 1847. It 
was proposed to take in parts of the towns of 
Sodus, Rose and Huron. The argument favor- 
ing the town was that the inhabitants of Huron 





REV. J. B. VROOMAN, 
Twice Pastor Baptist Church. 

west of the bay had no medium of communication 
with the eastern part of the town except by a 
toll bridge and "much of the land, though natur- 
ally fertile and easily cultivated, remains waste 
and uncultivated." 



22 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 




Loaned by Clyde Lodge, F. & A. M. 

AARON GRISWOLD, 
Godfather Griswold Chap. R. A. M. 

Aaron Griswold was a promoter, manufac- 
turer and banker in the early part of the history 
of Clyde and actively engaged in public enter- 
prises, being one of those who engineered the 
project of a railroad between Syracuse and 
Rochester through this section. As early as 
1822 he was engaged in the construction of 
canal boats. He and his father that year build- 
ing one at King"s bridge and floating it down the 
river launched it into the canal at Clyde, the 
first boat afloat on the canal at this place. The 
family was then living on a farm of 300 acres 
two miles south of Lyons, which his father 
bought and settled upon in 1815. And though 
Aaron Griswold was in Clyde a great deal at that 
time he did not engage in business here until 
1836. He was born in Fairfield, N. Y. , Dec. 1, 
1799, and was twelve years old when his father 
moved to the farm near Lyons. In Feb. 1823 he 
married Hannah Romeyn. Their children were 
James R., Mary L., Charles W. and Susan A, 



The latter is Mrs. Albert F. Redfield now living 
in this village. Stephen Ferguson and Aaron 
Griswold were engaged in building canal boats 
in 1826 and the latter was engaged in construct- 
ing canals and railroads in Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey from 1828 to 1831. 

Aaron Griswold in 1831 went into the mercan- 
tile business at Lock Berlin with Wm. Ford and 
in March, 1836, came to Clyde to engage in trade 
in company with Benjamin Ford, purchasing the 
Clyde hotel in 1840 and conducting it two years. 
Griswold & Chapman in 1843 purchased the flour- 
ing and saw mills on the north side of the river 
and the grist mill on the south side with the 
water rights and started a store at the corner of 
Ford and Glasgow streets. In August 1848 Mr. 
Griswold sold out all of his business interests in 
Clyde to Luther Redfield and that fall and win- 
ter spent his time working in the interest of the 
proposed Rochester and Syracuse railroad, going 
west in August 1849, and on June 1, 1851, Mr. 
Griswold having returned to Clyde he in company 
with Charles S. DePuy, Wm. C. Ely and H. G. 
Groesback purchased the flouring mill in Clyde, 
which in October 1854 they sold out to Briggs, 
Coffin & Co. On Feb. 1, 1860, Mr. Griswold pur- 
chased an interest in the Briggs' bank and in 
1866 an interest in the Clyde Paper Manufactur- 
ing Company of which he was elected president; 
in March, 1869, Mr. Griswold with Charles G. 
Elliott purchased the fixtures, etc. of the First 
National Bank of Clyde and engaged as private 
bankers. He died Feb. 10, 1883. 

Wayne County— Population in 1825: — Mace- 
don 1,903, Ontario 2,732, Palmyra 2,613, William- 
son 3,190, Arcadia 3,479, Lyons 3,068, Sodus- 
2,496, Galen 2,935, Savannah 452, Wolcott 3,893 
— total, 26,761. There were then in the county 
26 grist mills, 83 saw mills, 19 fulling mills, 20' 
carding machines. 




Shipler, Photo. 



OFFICERS OF GRISWOLD CHAPTER, NO. 201, R. A. M. 



Top Row (left to right): E. M Ellenwood, J. J. Cookingham, Dr. T. H. Hallett, Dr. G. D. Barrett, J. L. Deridder, Prof: 
Tallman, L. Nichols.. Lower Row (left to right): W. N. Field, G. G. Rowe, J. E. McGinnis, W. Wiles, W. R. Vrooman. 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



23 




Loaned by Clyde Lodge, F. & A. M. 

JOHN CONDIT, 
Charter Master Clyde Lodge, F. & A. M. 

The First Locomotive in Clyde came to this 
village over the Syracuse & Rochester railroad, 
then in process of construction, from the east 
Nov. 11, 1852. The road then had been built as 
far west as Clyde and was in process of construc- 
tion in the village. In April, 1853, The Clyde 
Times announced that "one passenger train a 
day goes through the village in each direction, 
going west about ten A. M. and east about three 
p. M. " The next announcement was that regu- 
lar trains would begin running on this road about 
.June 1, 1853, and that the fare between Syracuse 
and Clyde would be seventy-five cents and be- 
tween Syracuse and Lyons ninety cents, about 
the same as at present. 

On May 31, 1853, it was announced that the 
"Rochester & Syracuse direct railroad" would 
be opened on June 6, 1853, with a way train 
leaving Clyde in the morning and an emigrant 
train at night, in each direction, adding, "the 
express trains will not be put on under a fort- 
night. " 



Clyde Lodge, No. 341, F. and A. M.- [Con- 
densed from an elaborate history compiled by 
George O. Baker]— On June 7, 1823, the Grand 
Lodge granted a charter to John Lewis as Mas- 
ter, Henry W. Northrup as Senior Warden, and 
Artimus Humeston as Junior Warden, to organ- 
ize, institute and open a lodge of Free and Ac- 
cepted Masons, to be known as Galen Lodge, No. 
367, to be held in the town of Galen, N. Y. 

The first meeting of the lodge, Oct. 15, 1823, 
was held in the store building of Sylvester Clark, 
now occupied as a residence by Mr. Cotton on 
the corner of Waterloo and Geneva streets, on 
the south side of the river, in a room then used 
for nearly all the public assemblages of the 
place. There were present John Lewis, W. M. ; 
Hibbard West, S. W. ; Artimus Humeston, J. 
W. ; Jabez Spicer, Secretary; Abram Knapp, 
Treasurer; Nelson Smith, S. D. ; John Condit, 
J. D., and brethren Peleg Petteys, Edward Bur- 
rell, Levi Tuttle, David W. Perrine, James Sears, 
Eli Frisbie, Arza Lewis, William DeGoyler, and 
visiting brothers James M. Watson, and Sanford 
Sisson. Several petitions were presented and 
referred to appropriate committees. 

John Lewis, the first master, was a practicing 
physician. He died in 1834, and his remains lie 
in the Masonic lot in Maple Grove cemetery where 
they were taken by the Clyde Lodge from the 
old cemetery. 

Soon after the organization of the lodge the 
alleged expose of Masonry by Morgan and his 
tragic disappearance resulted in the decline of 
the order at Clyde, and "we find," writes Mr. 
Baker, "this final record of Galen Lodge, No. 
367:— 

" 'At a regular meeting of the Galen Lodge 
held at the lodge room in the Clyde Hotel, Feb. 
15, 1832. Lodge opened in due form. Members 
present, John Condit, Worshipful Master; T. J. 
Whiting, Daniel Dunn, S. M. Welch, J. A. Pen- 
dleton, A. Lewis, Orren W. Giles. Lodge closed 
in due form. ' 

"This faithful band of seven masons met," 




Shipler, Photo. 



OFFICERS OF CLYDE LODGE, NO. 341, F. & A. M. 



Top Row (left to right) : N. Arnold, H. Kenyon, F. Baker. E. Scutt, G. J. Lauster. 
Cookingham, Dr. G. D. Barrett, Dr. D. L. Edwards. George Ware, J. E. McGinnis. 



Lower Row (left to right): J, J. 



24 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



adds Mr. Baker, "opened the lodge in due form, 
and, so far as records show, closed in due form 
for the last time." 

"The next heard of masonry in Clyde" con- 
tinues Mr. Baker, "was in 1854— twenty-two 
years after the last meeting of old Galen lodge. 
At the Grand Lodge held in June 1854, a charter 
was granted for the formation of Clyde Lodge, 
No. 341, Free and Accepted Masons. The char- 
ter bore date July 6th, 1854. The first meeting 
was held July 25, 1854. 

"John Condit, who had been the Worshipful 
Master of old Galen Lodge when it 'closed in due 
form, ' was named in the charter as Worshipful 
Master; Joseph Watson, Senior Warden; and 
Joseph Welling, Junior Warden. Joseph Wat- 
son had been made a mason in Galen Lodge and 
had kept the faith." 

The actual number of members enrolled in Ga- 
len Lodge was 68. When the lodge suspended 
its meetings were being held in the ball room of 
the Clyde hotel. 

John Condit, prominent in the community, car- 
ried on blacksmithing, and erected a brick block 
on Columbia street in the eastern part of which 
he had his shop. It is now occupied by Winters' 
restaurant and Wood's barber shop. He was a 



At the second meeting of Clyde Lodge, No. 
341, held August 8, 1854, the following officers 
were installed:— John Condit, worshipful master; 
Joseph Watson, senior warden; Joseph Welling, 
junior warden; William C. Ely, treasurer; Aaron 
Griswold, secretary; W. G. Elliott, senior dea- 
can; S. J. Child, junior deacon; Abner Hand, 
tiler. 

Wm. C. Ely, treasurer, a leading capitalist of 
Clyde, held the office six years. He died in 1886. 
Aaron Griswold, the secretary, was a charter 
member of Griswold chapter — named in his honor 
—and was engaged in several occupations, mer- 
chant, boat builder, contractor, paper manufac- 
turer, banker. He died in 1883. W. G. Elliott 
was a physician and druggist. He served the 
Union in the rebellion, and is now residing in 
Pontiac, Mich. Sylvester J. Child was a jeweler. 
He died in 1898. ' .:■* 

Dr. Samuel Weed, a native of the town of 
Galen, practiced until his death in 1879. I. Thal- 
heimer was received in the lodge in September, 
1864, and is now the oldest living member. He 
now resides in Rochester. John Vandenberg, 
master in 1871-'3, was a lawyer of prominence, 
twice Member of Assembly and once District At- 
torney. He died in 1894. Dr. J. N. Arnold, 




Loaned by D. L. Stow. 



CLYDE IN 1856. 



colonel in the militia and a member of the Pres- 
byterian church. He died in February, 1864 and 
was buried with Masonic honors. 

"Joseph Watson, familiarly known as Captain 
Joe Watson and 'Uncle' Joe Watson was a man 
of varied occupations— canal-boat captain, keep- 
er of line barn, merchant and a model farmer, ' ' 
writes Mr. Baker. "For many years he owned 
and resided on the farm on the south side of the 
river, now owned by Hemingway, and those old 
enough to remember will recall what a typical 
farm that was, and the kindly greeting of its 
owner always warmed the hearts of the breth- 
ren who stopped there. Brother Watson was 
the second Master of the lodge. He continued 
to be a member until his death in 1881." 

Joseph Welling, at the time he was named Junior 
Warden in the charter, was a lawyer of mark. 
He had been elected District Attorney the fall 
before and was then serving his first year in 
that office. Brother Welling about 1856 or 1857, 
moved to Lyons and later became Master of Hu- 
manity Lodge, No. 406. He was the first Col- 
onel of the Ninth Heavy Artillery in the War of 
the Rebellion, and afterwards practiced law in 
Lyons and in Rochester. He died not many 
years since. 



master in 1876-'7, was a courtly gentleman 
whose death occurred in 1902. Hial A. Water- 
bury, master in 1894-'6, was a retired farmer of 
large means whose death occurred in 1898. 

The last of the charter members to "join the 
great majority" was Sylvester J. Child, who 
died Jan. 8, 1898. 

Moses Munn was the first initiated, Aug, 22, 
1854. He died in 1871. 

The first regular lodge room was in Odd Fel- 
lows' hall on the site of John Stock's building. 
The first meeting of the Masons in the present 
lodge room in the Graham block, then known as 
the Miller block, was April 5, 1864. 

Clyde lodge is the mother of Red Creek lodge 
which was formed in 1864, Rose lodge in 1865, 
and Savannah lodge in 1867. On July 9, 1874, 
Clyde lodge laid the corner store of the new 
High school of the village of Clyde on the north 
side of the river. 

Griswold Chapter, No. 201, R. A. M., was 
chartered February 7, 1867. The first officers: — 
H. P., Aaron Griswold; K., J. Hasbrook Suhler; 
S., Robt. Dobyus; T., Hugh Boyd; C. of H., 
Seth Smith; P. S., Dr. Jas. M. Horn; R. A. C, 
JohnTremper; M. of 1st V., Edward B. Wells;. 



"GRIPS" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



25 



M. of 2d V., Jacob Strauss; M. of 3d V., George 
O. Baker. 

Masters of old Galen lodge: — John Lewis 
(charter) 1823-'5; Artimus Humestone, 1826-'8; 
John Condit, 1831 to the time of suspension, 
some years elapsing between that period and the 
organization of the Clyde lodge. 



Officers of Clyde Lodge, 1905: -Master, Dr. G. 
D Barrett; Sr W , G W Ware; Jr. W., Dr. J. 
L. Thorpe; S D , C E Zeluff ; J. D., N. H. Ar- 
nold; S M of C , George J. Lauster; J. M. of 
C , E Inman; Tiler, H. P Kenyon. These offi- 
cers were publicly installed January 2d, 1905. 



Elective Officers of Clyde Lodge from July 25, 1854, to December 31, 1905:- 



W. Binder. 


Sr Warden. 


Jr. Harden. 


Treasurer. 


Secretary. 


1854 John Condit 


Jos Watson 


Jos Welling 


W C Ely 


Aaron Griswold 


55 " 


" " 


Moses Munn 


" " 


W G Elliott 


56 Jos Watson 


Jos Welling 


W C Elliott 


" " 


Seth Smith 


57 W G Elliott 


Aaron Griswold 


Moses Munn 


" " 


Wellington Colvin 


58 Aaron Griswold 


Samuel Weed 


I Thalheimer 


" " 


Byron Ford 


59 " 


" •' 


Seth Smith 


" " 


" " 


60 " 


" " 


" " 


P M De Zeng 


S H Skinner 


61 Samuel Weed 


Seth Smith 


D O O A Burnham 


Jos Watson 


J F Van Buskirk 


62 Aaron Griswold 


Samuel Weed 


Seth Smith 


" " 


J H Jones 


63 " 


" " 


Hartwell Start 


" 


" " 


64 Samuel Weed 


Geo O Baker 


" 


" 


I Thalheimer 


65 Geo Baker 


Edw B Wells 


D O A Burnham 


Aaron Griswold 


B F Clark 


66 " 


" " 


" " 


" 


E F Palmer 


67 Edw B Wells 


John Vandenberg 


J M Scarritt 


S H Briggs 


J F Van Buskirk 


68 " 


" " 


G L Osborne 


I Thalheimer 


J A Hamilton 


69 " 


J M Scarritt 


Thos Robinson 


" 


Jno Newton 


70 " 


John Vandenberg 


Jacob Strauss 


it it 


J N Arnold 


71 Jno Vandenberg 


■ John Tremper 


D C Myers 


" " 


" " 


72 " 


D C Myers" 


W H Barnes 


" " 


" " 


73 " 


J. A Hamilton 


N A Finch 


Seth Smith 


J W Hinman 


74 Edw B Wells 


D C Myers 


W N Field 


Hartwell Start 


it a 


75 " 


" " 


J N Arnold 


W H Groesbeck 


F S Reed, three 


76 J N Arnold 


W N Field 


J W Hinman 


occupied the po- 


meetings. J E 


77 " 


" " 


T W Mackie 


sition down to 


M c G i n n i s , the 


78 Geo O Baker 


T W Mackie 


S G Babcock 


1887. 


present secreta- 


79 " 


S G Babcock 


Francis Noy 




ry, followed 


80 Edw B Wells 


Francis Noy 


W W Legg 




Reed and served 


81 Francis Noy 


W W Legg 


F H Terry 




continu ously 


82 Edw B Wells 


Paul Greiner 


J G Corrigan 




since, (the re- 


83 W N Field 


A H Smith 


JThos Williams 




markably long 


84 " 


J P Ruf 


J R Miller 




period of thirty 


85 " 


J R Miller 


J G Corrigan 




years.) 


86 " 


C H Hamilton 


J J Cookingham 






87 C H Hamilton 


W W Legg 


J H Childs 


Louis Nichols 




88 John P Ruf 


(/ R Bacon 
yThos Williams 


G P Livingston 


" " 




89 " 


E C Myers 


it a 




90 " 


J S Barnard 


W W Legg 


J J Cookingham, 




91 " 


J R Miller 


W A Patten 


the present treas- 




92 G R Bacon 


H A Waterbury 


W R Vrooman 


urer, having oc- 




93 " 


" " 


" " 


cupied the place 




94 H A Waterbury 

95 " 

96 " 


W R Vrooman 


B N Marriott 


ever since. 




B N Narriott 


A C Lux 






97 B N Marriott 


A C Lux 


C E Jones 






98 " 


C E Jones 


D L Edwards 






99 " 


E Q Corrin 


" " 






1900 E Q Corrin 
01 " 


D L Edwards 


G D Barrett 






02 " 

03 D L Edwards 

04 " 

05 G D Barrett 


G D Barrett 


G W Ware 






G W Ware 


G L Thorpe 







vf 



County Clerks; Terms of Those Who have 
Held that Position, [Alphabetical Order] : Bar- 
ber Jr, John, 1826-'31; Bixby, Abel J, 1879^-81; 
Cuyler, John L, 1832-'4; Chapman, Daniel, 1842- 
'6; Collins, Thaddeus W, 1867-'9; Cuyler, Led- 
yard S, 1894— (present incumbent.) 

Foster, Cullen, 1835-'9; Gavitt, Saxton B, 
1852-'7; Gates, Alfred H, 1873-'5; Hawley, 
James, 1840-'l; Lyon^Lyman, 1858-'63; Mason, 
Clark, 1864-'6; McGonigal, 1882-'4.) 

Peacock, Fred, 1891-'3; Richard«on, Israel J, 
1824--5; Redfield, Albert F, 1870-'2; Sweeting, 

olney H, 1876- ? 8; Thomas, Byron, 1885-'7; 

"illiams, Alexander B, 1847-'51; Wells, Edward 
B, 1888-'90. 



The First Attorneys admitted to practice in 
the county of Wayne at the Court of Common 
Pleas (first session) held at the Presbyterian 
church, Lyons, Tuesday May 27, 1823, Judges 
Tallmadge, Sisson, Arne and Monax on the bench, 
were the following — 

Wm. H. Adams, Frederick Smith, Orville L. 
Holly, Wm. J. Hough, Graham H. Chapin, Hugh 
Jameson, John Fleming, Jr., Wm. Wells, Alex- 
ander R. Tiffany, Thomas P. Baldwin, Charles 
F. Smith, Edward M. Coe, David Hudson, Jesse 
Clark, Nathan Parke, Lansing B. Mizner, Jared 
Willson, Lemuel W. Ruggles, Mark H. Sibley, 
John Burton. 



26 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 





Loaned by Himself. 

LATE REV. C. W. WALKER. 

The First Methodist Church was organized 
at a meeting held at the school house on the 
south side of the river, Nov. 23, 1824, by Revs. 
Joseph Gardner and Isaac Chase. The first 
trustees elected were Isaac Chase, Jabez Cook 
and Benjamin S. Wright. The organization of 
the church was the result of a revival held in 
that year by Rev. John Robinson of the South 
Sodus charge, who was the first to fill the pulpit, 
the church until 1833 being supplied by clergy- 
men on the circuit. Services were held in the 
same school house until the first house of 
worship was erected in 1831. It was a frame 
structure 30x60 feet and cost $1,900. It stood 
on the present site of the church and was 
occupied for twenty-eight years. The build- 
ing was finally sold to the Free Methodist 
society, who still own it, and it now stands 
on a lot on the south side of Catharine street 
next east of the Methodist Episcopal parson- 
age. 

The present church building, erected in 
1859 at the corner of Sodus and Caroline 
streets and dedicated in that year, was so 
well built that it has ever since with some 
improvements proven adequate for a large 
and growing congregation. It is a very 
shapely and well proportioned building now 
occupied for nearly fifty years past. On 
Nov. 23, 1871, the 47th anniversary of the 
organization of the society, the building was 
re-dedicated by Bishop John T. Peck and Rev. 
V. I. Ives. Again, in 1892— July 17th— after 
this beautiful edifice had been decorated, fur- 
nished with new seats and otherwise elabor- 
ately improved, it was re-opened for worship 
with appropriate services conducted by the 
pastor, Rev. David Keppel, the sermon on 
the occasion being preached by Rev. J. I. C. 
Sawyer of the Northern Christian Advocate. 
The Pastors: — Rev. Philo E. Brown, ap- 
pointed 1833; Rev. H. Kellogg, 1834; Rev. C. 
Wheeler, '35; Rev. J. G. Gulick, '36; Rev. E. 



B. Fuller, '37; Rev. Delos Hutchings, '38, '50; 
Rev. S. W. Wooster, '39; Rev. Israel H. Kellogg, 
'40, '49; Rev. R. Harrington, '42; Rev. Thos. 
Stacey, '43; Rev, J. K. Tinkham, '44; Rev. E. 
Latimer, '45; Rev. David Ferris, '47; Rev. L. 
Northway, '52; Rev. Elijah Wood, '54; Rev. 
Wm. Bradley, '56; Rev. J. T. Arnold, '58; Rev. 
John N. Brown, '60; Rev. K. P. Jarvis, '62; 
Rev. David Nuttin, '63; Rev. A. S. Baker, '65; 
Rev. P. McKinstry, '66; Rev. A. W. Green, 
'68, '77; Rev. G. W. Chandler, '71; Rev. A" 
J. Kenyon, '74; Rev. O. A. Houghton, '80; 
Rev. Benjamin Shove, '83; Rev. Milton Ham- 
blin, '86; who died while in the charge of this 
parish in 1887; Rev. T. O. Beebe (supply), '87; 
Rev. Thomas Tousey, '87; Rev. Arthur Copeland, 
'89; Rev. David Keppel, '91; Rev. George H. 
Haigh, '96; Rev. J. Edson Rhodes, 1900; Rev. 

C. W. Walker, 1903, who died after a short and 
severe illness and under melancholy circum- 
stances while still the pastor of this church, on 
December 9, 1904. 

Rev. Mr. Walker, as above seen, had been 
with the Clyde church comparatively a short 
time, having come to Clyde Oct. 1, 1903, and 
consequently having been here about thirteen 
months. He had developed a chai'acter as a cit- 
izen as well as a clergyman that was entirely in 
keeping with his profession. He had become 
greatly endeared to the community as well as 
the church and had proven to be a young man of 
exceptional ability and therefore great promise. 
As an orator he made a great impression with 
all classes. He possessed sturdy independence, 
yet was kindly in disposition and agreeable in 
manners. He was taken suddenly ill on Satur- 
day and on the following Friday early in the 
morning breathed his last at the parsonage in 
this village. He was survived by a loving wife 
and an infant son. 

Rev. P. H. Riegel, became pastor of the Meth- 
odist church, to fill the vacancy caused by the 




THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



27 




Shipler, Photo. 

B. N. MARRIOTT. Editor Clyde Times. 

death of the Rev. C. W. Walker, on Jan. 1, 
1905, coming from the pastorate at Weedsport 
where he was beginning his fourth year when 
called to take this charge. Mr. Riegel, who was 
born at Plimmer, Pa., is 39 years old. He was 
educated at the Syracuse University and in 1887 
was licensed to preach at Geneva, N. Y. He 
was admitted into full connection with the New 
York conference Oct. 3, 1895. His appointments 
have been Varna, 1893-'4; Branchport, 1895, 
'98-'9; Camillus, 1896- '7; Weedsport, 1901-'04. 

The Clyde Times was established as the 
Clyde Eagle in 1844 by B. Frazee and Mr. Dryer. 
The paper passed into the hands of Rev. Chas. 
G. Ackley in 1847 and Wm. Tompkins, who gave 
it the name Clyde Telegraph. Then came Rev. 
W. W. Stroiker. It was discontinued as the 
Telegraph while Wm. R. Fowle was the propri- 
etor. In Feb. 1850 Pain and Smith established 
the Clyde Industrial Times and Joseph A. Pain 
conducted the Weekly Times. Under James M. 
Scarrett it was given the present name. It 
passed into the hands of Irwin A. Forte Jan. 1, 
1871 and on Jan. 1, 1876, became the property of 
Foote Bros. A. M. Ehart conducted the paper 
from Aug. 18, 1894, until April I, 1900, when 
Mr. B. N. Marriott became the proprietor. 

Byron N. Mari'iott the present editor, conduct- 
ing the paper as a clean, newsy family paper 
has given it a high standing among the rural 
weeklies of the state. It is his aim to make the 
Times a reliable newspaper and increase its in- 
fluence as well as its circulation. Mr. Marriott 
was born in Rose, Oct 14, 1862, and was a resi- 
dent of that town most of the time until he was 
twenty-one years old. He was graduated at the 
Lyons Union school in 1885 but began teaching 
in 1883. He was a student at the Albany Nor- 
mal College 1889-'90 and in the fall of the latter 
year he came to Clyde as Principal in the South 
Side school. During ten years he taught in the 
public school. 



Clyde in I856— From the Clyde Times of 
August 24, 1856, is taken the following reference 
to the village of that date:— "The amount of 
produce shipped by our forwarders for the east- 
ern markets during the last season exceeded in 
many items that shipped by any village on the 
canal between Clyde and Rochester, not except- 
ing Palmyra. Clyde at the present time con- 
tains, viz : — 11 dry goods stores, 1 provision 
store, 15 groceries, 3 clothing stores, 2 tailor 
shops, 4 shoe shops, 2 harness shops, 5 milliners, 
1 dressmaker, 1 hat store, 1 jewelry store, 1 
book store, 1 bazaar, 3 cabinet shops, 1 hard- 
ware store, 4 stove stores, 2 tin shops, 3 drug 
stores, 6 meat markets, 4 hotels; 1 billiard room, 
1 ball alley, I distillery, 2 Hour mills, 1 saw mill, 
1 carding machine, 1 printing office, 2 planing 
machines, 1 furnace and machine shop, 1 recti- 
fying house, 2 sash and blind factories, 1 brew- 
ery, 4 forwarding houses, 2 builders, 1 lum- 
ber yard, 1 brick yard, 1 glass factory, 4 cooper 
shops, 2 artists, 2 deguerrean artists, 4 painters, 
4 blacksmith shops, 1 stave machine, 1 wagon 
factory, 1 malt house, 1 boatyard, 1 ashery, 2 
bakeries, 1 coach lace factory, 1 tannery, 1 bar- 
ber shop, 1 dentist, 5 surgeons, 4 lawyers, 1 
bank, 4 livery stables, 1 brass band, 1 concert 
hall, 1 high school, 2 select schools, 6 churches, 
office of county judge, 1 lodge I. O. 0. F., 1 en- 
campment, 1 lodge Sons of Temperance, 1 agri- 
cultural society, 1 shoemakers' society; besides, 
between 50 and 100 carpenters and stone masons 
are kept in constant employment." 

First Grand Jurors Empanelled in Wayne 
County. —John Adams, Abner F. Lakey, Wm. D. 
Wiley, John Barber, Jr., Lemuel Spear, David 
Warner, Ephraim Green, Wm. Vcorhees, James 
Mason, Abel Wyman, David Russell, Cephas 
Moody, Stephen Sherman, Wm. Wilson, Wm. 
Plank, Alexander Beard, Jacob Butterfield, Dan- 
iel Chapman, Jeremiah H. Pierce, Freeman 
Rogers, Newell Taft, Pliney Foster and Joseph 
Lane. 




REV. P. H. RIEGEL, 

Newly Installed Pastor M. E. Church. 



28 



'GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 




WM. S. STOW. 
William Sears Stow was born at Wilming- 
ton, Vt., Oct. 6, 1797. Sometime thereafter he 
removed with his father to Claverack, N. Y., 
where he spent his early years. He received his 
education at the district school and at the Hud- 
son academy. He studied law in the office of 
Elisha Williams of Hudson, N. Y., who was one 
of the leading attorneys of his day. Mr. Stow 
was licensed to practice law by the Hon. Smith 
Thompson, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, 
on Aug. 14, 1818. Early in 1819 he commenced 
the practice of his profession at Cherry Valley, 
N. Y., and remained at that place about one 
year. He then removed to Bainbridge, Chenan- 
go county, N. Y., where he continued his prac- 
tice until 1824. Here he became acquainted with 
Maria Augusta De Zeng, the daughter of Maj. 
Frederick A. De Zeng, whom he married at Ge- 
neva, N. Y., Sept. 12, 1825, when he was per- 
suaded by William T. De Zeng to remove to 
Clyde where he arrived in November, 1825. He 
moved into the house on the corner of Sodus and 
West Genesee streets which he occupied during 
the remainder of his life. He immediately com- 
menced the erection of the frame office now oc- 
cupied by his son, De L Stow, and continued to 
occupy the same to the time of his death in 1880. 
His son entered the office with him in 1860 and 
still continues the business in the same building 
— an unequalled period of carrying on one busi- 
iness continuously by father and son in the same 
rooms for eighty years. Both father and son, 
in connection with their law practice, have dur- 
ing most of that time carried on the business of 
fire insurance; and the office bears the distinc- 
tion of being "the oldest insurance office in the 
United States," and has so been exploited in 
some of the leading insurance journals. Its ex- 
ternal appearance remains unchanged, except 
that it has been kept in first rate condition and 
an addition of thirty feet was in 1883 built on 
the rear on the same lines as the original struc- 
ture. 

This building is one of the landmarks of Wayne 
county. Here was held the first election of vil- 
lage officers, and from this office was issued the 
first call for a convention— which was held in the 



Baptist church— ultimately resulting in the form- 
ation of the company that built the main line of 
the New York Central Railroad between Roches- 
ter and Syracuse. 

Mr. Stow was always active in the promotion 
of the welfare of the village. He was a mem- 
ber of the first Board of Village Trustees. To- 
gether with George Burrill, John Condit, Sylves- 
ter Clark, Cyrus Smith, Isaac Lewis and Calvin. 
P. Tompkins he was an incorporator of Clyde 
High School and was member of the first Board 
of its trustees. He was one of the founders of 
the Episcopal church, in 1840, and was a mem- 
ber of the first vestry; and with the exception 
of an interval of two or three years, he contin- 
ued to act as a warden or vestryman during the 
balance of his life. Until the formation of the 
Republican party he was a Democrat; when with, 
the free soil wing of his party he cast his lot 
with the Republicans. He was at one time a 
Master in Chancery and for several years held 
the office of police justice of the village. His 
wife died in Clyde on the 25th day of December, 
1873. Four children were born of their marriage, 
William S. De Z. Stow who died in infancy, John: 
Barber Stow who went to California during the 
excitement of 1849 where he died in 1885, Maria 
Antoinette who married Charles C. Cady and 
who now resides at Verdon, Virginia, and De L. 
Stow who still continues to occupy the old home- 
stead and office. William S. Stow died on the 
20th day of August, 1880, and was buried in' 
Maple Grove cemetery. 

DeLancey Stow was born at Clyde, N. Y., 
Sept. 4, 1841, in the house on the corner of Sodus. 
and West Genesee streets, where he still resides. 
His parents were Wm. S. and Maria A. Stow. 
His mother was a daughter of Maj. Frederick 
A. De Zeng. De Lancey Stow was the youngest 
of four children, who are fully mentioned in the 
history of Wm. S. Stow Mr. Stow's early edu- 
cation was obtained at a private school which 
was maintained by the various branches of the- 
De Zeng family who then resided at Clyde 




DE L. STOW. 






'GRIPS" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



29 




DR. D. COLVIN, 
(See Reminiscences on Page 4.) 

After attending the Clyde High School for two 
or three years Mr. Stow took a three years' 
course at the Yates Polytechnic Institute atChit- 
tenango, N. Y., and completed his studies at 
Hobart college, Geneva, N. Y. 

In the spring of 1860 he entered the office of 
his father as student at law, and was duly ad- 
mitted to practice as an attorney and counsellor 
at law at Rochester, N. Y , in December, 1862. 
Beginning the practice of his profession at once 
in company with his father whom he socn suc- 
ceeded, Mr. Stow has since continued it in the 
same office. In 1861 Mr. Stow assumed the en- 
tire control of the insur- 
ance business which his 
father had conducted be- 
fore him and which un- 
der his management has 
obtained large propor- 
tions, having as its basis 
an honm^able record for 
fair dealing with its 
patrons. 

Mr. Stow's law prac- 
tice has always been 

large and exceptionally 

successful, and he has 

been connected with 

some of the most impor- 
tant litigations that have 

been conducted in the 

county of Wayne. 

Mr. Stow has always 

been an active supporter 

of the Episcopal church 

during the most of that 

time serving as warden 

or vestryman of St. 

John's whose present 

church building was 

largely erected through 

his efforts, he being one 

of the committee having 

charge of the w T ork. 



He was always a warm friend of the Clyde 
High School and for many years was a member 
of its board of education. He served four years 
as postmaster at Clyde under the second admin- 
istration of Grover Cleveland, and for a number 
of years was police justice of the village. He 
has always been sincerely interested in the wel- 
fare of the village and the advancement of its 
enterprises. He was initiated into the order of 
Odd Fellows on the night of the institution of 
Clyde Lodge, No. 300, in Feb. 1872, and has 
maintained his standing in the order continuous- 
ly from that time, having held all of the princi- 
pal offices in the lodge. 

James R. Rees, one of the best known of the 
earliest settlers in this locality, came to the vil- 
lage of Clyde about 1820 in the interest of his 
brother-in-law, Wm. S. De Zeng, in whose com- 
pany he conducted a store on the north shore of 
the river for some years. He built the original 
portion of the house at the corner of Sodus and 
West Genesee streets now occupied by De Lan- 
cey Stow, and made that his home many years, 
first boarding with the Vanderveer family. Wm. 
S. Stow bought the property and Mr. Rees 
boarded in his family several years. 

In 1827 Mr. Rees with Wm. S. De Zeng erected 
the glass factory and the two for some time 
carried on the enterprise. Later Mr. Rees sold 
his interest to Mr. De Zeng taking in part pay- 
ment what is now known as the Rees farm in 
the eastern outskirts of the village. This farm. 
then taking in the hill known as Rees hill, in- 
cluded the land east of Galen street and the ex- 
tension of East Genesee street where it encir- 
cles the hill, and between the race course farm, 
owned by the Ely estate, and the Clyde river. 
Its eastern boundary was the western boundary 
of the farm now occupied by Jerome Davis. On 
this place Mr. Rees practically spent the balance 
of his life. A section of this farm east of Galen 




Loaned by Adelaide Conklin. 



PUBLIC BUILDINGS OF I860. 
Old Presbyterian and Free Methodist Churches and Old School. 



30 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 





Mi 












M w 


4 















Loaned by De L. Stow. 

JAMES R. REES, 
An Early Land Proprietor of Clyde. 

street and north of De Zeng street he platted 
and sold, cut up in village lots. 

Mr. Rees never married. He loved farming 
and was greatly interested in the improvement 
of stock and the introduction of new varieties of 
grain and vegetables. He was a gentleman of 
high culture, genial disposition and hospitable; 
but, with all, peculiar. His quaint sayings will 
forever remain fresh in the memory of those 
who knew him. 

Adrastus Snedaker who for years was an 
important figure in Clyde and vicinity and was 
well known along the canal as the man in control 
of the packet business at Clyde at the time 
packets were the chief means of travel, distin- 
guished himself when sheriff, as ' 'the man who 
hung Wm. Fee," the only execution that has oc- 
curred in this county. Mr. Snedaker kept the 
old packet dock tavern opposite the dock, which 
was successively known as the Mansion, Frank- 
lin, Sherman and Delavan house, and he was a 
large real estate owner. Mr. Snedaker is one of 
the committee who planted the Centennial oak 
tree in the park in 1876. 

Pioneers of Clyde — How the First Three Fam- 
ilies got through the Woods to Clyde; Their 
First Night was Spent in Open Camp; The 
Next Night Thirty-five People Lodged on the 
Floor of a Log Hut; The Lights of an Indian 
Encampment Glimmered Across the River; 
One Who was there Tells the Story:— 
In April, 1801, two boats loaded with men and 
women and household effects drew up to the 
north shore on the present site of Clyde and a 
few moments were spent by the passengers in 
viewing the charred remains of an old block- 
house that attracted their attention. Nearly 
eighty years earlier that structure had been 
thrown up as the advance fortress of an expected 
tide of civilization, at the command of Captain 
Schuyler, the commandant of a detachment of 



His Majesty's expedition sent west to open trad- 
ing posts. The location was inviting. But the 
wayfarers, miles from home looking for a "lodge 
in some vast wilderness," had not yet reached 
the end of their journey. Two miles farther 
west they had to urge their progress to reach 
the haven they had selected on Military lot No. 
70, where they had obtained title to several acres 
of land. Early that evening, though not until 
after dark, the boats turned a big bend in the river 
and drew up to the south shore, the outlines of 
a log hut which could be seen on the farther side of 
the low flat river land, several rods distant from 
the river, indicating that they had reached their 
frontier home. Another party who had come 
through the woods with oxen and a sleigh were 
on the ground awaiting their arrival and the 
greeting of kindred was hearty. 

The boats contained the household necessities, 
but it was too dark to undertake the unloading 
of goods and it was agreed that the whole num- 
ber should sleep beside the open fire in the log 
hut as best they could. That was the beginning 
of the white settlements in the town of Galen. 

These pioneers comprised the families of Nich- 
olas King, David Godfrey and Isaac Mills, who 
had made their way into the woods from Aurelius, 
Cayuga county, where they had arrived from 
Orange county the preceding year. 

An interesting account of their experiences 
was given to Joseph Watson by Betsey King, 
the daughter of Micholas King, and Mr. Watson 
wrote it down. The manuscript is still preserved 
by Mr. Stow. The essential part of it reads as 
follows : 

"Godfrey and Mills with their families went 
from the Cayuga upper bridge in open built 
Schenectady river boats and spent one night on 
the passage. They camped on shore on Military 
lot 87. Built a fire the whole length of a large 
fallen tree, cut crotches and put poles upon them 
and hung blankets at the back side and over 
the top, which with a bright fire burning in 




Loaned by De L. Stow. 

ADRASTUS SNEDAKER, 
One of the Earliest of Clyde's Public Men. 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



31 



front gave comfortable shelter from the April 
weather. 

"The second night brought them to their new 
home on Military lot 70, where King, Godfrey 
and Mills had been the preceding fall, 1800, and 
put up log cabins for Godfrey and Mills. Before 
they were able to build King's cabin snow had 
driven them back to Aurelius. 

"King and his family, except Betsey and Nich- 
olas, Jr., who went with the boats, left Cayuga 
bridge at the same time that the boats left, with 
oxen and sled and were compelled to travel over 
bare ground. The first night they reached the 
house of Thomas Beadle in Junius and the sec- 
ond day arrived at their destination. Reaching 
there before the arrival of the boats, Nicholas 
King's family was in fact the first white family 
that settled in Galen. 

"The boat's company arrived in the evening 
and a fire was built in the cabin some distance 
across the flats. It was so late the unloading of 
the boats was put off until morning and so the 
party had to eat sitting on the floor of hewn out 
slabs, which being basswood were thought to be 
soft beds and pillows for the weary emigrants. 
Thus the first night was spent by our thirty-five 
white Galenites in one log cabin. 



the Galen salt works. He was a brother of 
Nicholas King s wife's mother and the doctor 
gave his nephew 100 acres if he would settle on 
them. " 

In the above manuscript Joseph Watson has 
written:— "S. Redfield says that the first bridge 
raised in Clyde was in 1810. The timbers were 
raised in 1810, but with all the inhabitants there 
they could not have been raised except with the 
aid of David Gilson's boat crew which happened 
along at the right time. The bridge was com- 
pleted so as to be passable in 1811." 

Fire in 1847— On the evening of April 6, 1847, 
fire broke out in a barn in the rear of the Clyde 
Eagle office which burned that and three other 
buildings occupied as dwellings and stores, by 
which seven families were driven from their 
homes and the whole of the south-western angle 
formed by Columbia and Glasgow streets was 
threatened with destruction. The principal 
losses were:-Wm. P. Powell, $800; J. Wallace, 
$600; A. F. Halstead, $200; R. Perkins, $250; H. 
Mclntyre, $250; A. Tickner, $100; S. Salisbury, 
$50; J. Condit, $50; J. D. Stone, $250. 




Loaned by Dr. Colvin. 

"During the night Miss King was disturbed in 
consequence of a light which appeared across the 
river and gave evidence of an Indian encamp- 
ment. When daylight arrived a body of Indians 
crossed the river and appeared before the cabin 
crying, 'Hungery! Hungery! Hungery!' In 
their ears and noses they wore jewels which bore 
the appearance of lead or pewter. They proved 
to be a party of Cayugas who had learned to do 
pretty much what all the Indians at that time 
did, follow the white people to be fed. They 
had an eel weir in the river a short distance 
above our settlement. Opposite to the head of 
this was a small island near the north bank of 
the river, between which boats passed. 

"At the end of three clays a house was com- 
pleted for the King family. Soon afterwards 
navigation in the Canandaigua outlet was ob- 
structed by flood wood and our place was flooded. 
A little below us the river was completely 
blocked and two men named Payne and Capt. 
Sherman caused a channel to be cut across the 
bend in the river in 1804. When I saw it in 
1812 it was twelve feet wide. It was long after 
known as the canal. 

"Dr. Joseph Young of the revolutionary army, 
who served at Albany, drew lots 70, 28, 87 and 
37. The last had a salt spring on it and was at 



CLYDE PARK IN 1850. 

Sheriffs ; Terms of office [Alphabetical Order:] 
— Borrodaile, John, 1844-'6; Barnard, Geo W, 
1847- '9; Bennett, John P, 1862-'4, '68-'70; 
Brownell, John N, 187l-'3; Clark, Thomas M, 
1877— 9; Foster, Reuben H, 1826-8; Foster, 
Cullen, 1829— '31; Ford, Charles H (appointed to 
succeed Walter Thornton, deceased), 1894. 

Groat, Richard P, 1874— "6; Glenn, Wm. J, 
1880— '2; Hemenway, Truman, 1835—7; Howell, 
Vernon R, 1883— '5; Knowles, Geo W (appointed 
to succeed C E Reed, deceased), 1890— '1. 

Mann, Hiram, 1838— '40; Miles, Geo R, 1901-3, 
Nottingham, Wm P, 1856— '8; Palmeter, Calvin 
D, 1832—4; Paddock, Geo W, 1853— '5; Parshall, 
Rossman, J, 1886—8. 

Rogers, Bartlett R, 1865-'7; Reed, Charles E, 
1889-'90; Stout, Simon W, 1841-3; Snedaker, 
Adrastus, 1859-'61; Sweezey, Geo M, 1895-'7; 
Thornton, Walter, 1892-'3; Ward, Chester A, 
1850- '2; Wheeler, De Witt C, 1898-1900; Yeo- 
mans, Albert, 1904- '6. 

The First Judges of Wayne county ap- 
pointed by the Governor April 18, 1823, were 
John S. Tallmedge Judge and Surrogate, William 
Sisson, David Arne, Jr., Jonathan Boynton and 
Enoch Morse Associate Judges. 



32 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



Luther Redfieid was a distinguished citizen 
of Clyde from May 1823, the time he moved here 
from Junius, Seneca county, to the time of his 
death which occurred June 10, 1867. He was 
born at Richmond, Mass , Nov. 26, 1780, and 
married Mary Dyer of that place May 19, 1803. 
They came to the then unsettled region of Junius 




LUTHER REDFIELD. 

in Jan. 1806. Mr. Redfieid was made the captain 
of a militia company and on the occasion of the 
landing of the British troops at Sodus for an in- 
vasion of this state during the war of 1812 Capt. 
Redfieid and his company marched to the front 
without delay. This was in June, 1813. The 
company marched directly across the country, 
reaching the scene of danger at daybreak. The 
village was then in flames and the enemy had re- 
treated to their ships and were sailing away. 
The company was held there for a week and then 
sent home. 

Albert Francis Redfieid, the son of Luther 
Redfieid, was born in Victor, N Y., March 15, 
1817. For a number of years he was a promi- 
nent merchant of Clyde. He married Susan A., 
the daughter of Aaron Griswold, March 9, 1853. 
His death occurred Nov. 9, 



George O. Baker for nearly a half century 
has practiced law in Clyde, and for thirty-four 
years of that time has occupied the same office. 
He began practice here Aug. 27, 1859, and for 
two years was in company with John L. Crane, 
the firm being Baker & Crane. Then John Van- 
denberg was his law partner and the firm of 
Vandenberg & Baker continued fourteen years. 
He was also in partnership for two years with 
H. B. Exner (Baker & Exner). In all matters 
of public welfare Mr. Buker has always been 
among the most active, and his interest in the 
business development of the village has taken 
practical form whenever a move of the right 
character has been made. The practice of his 
profession in the village for so many years has 
placed him in close touch with all business enter- 
prises that have come and gone during that 
time as well as those that are here. Mr. Baker 
is an active member of the Masonic order, and 
zealously interested in the growth of the Clyde 
lodge with which he has been closely affiliated 
from an early period in its history. He has ven- 
tured in many industrial enterprises among the 
most important of which is the Clyde glass works 
of which he is one of the directors. 



Mr. Baker was born in the town of Constantia, 
Oswego county, N. Y., June 30, 1835. On leav- 
ing the common schools he pursued his studies in 
Clinton Liberal Institute and Mexico academy. 
Then he began the study of law, teaching school 
for some time afterwards and studying in the 
law offices of his brother, Wm. H. Baker at Con- 
stantia, and Marsh & Webb at Oswego, being 
admitted to the bar at Syracuse, N. Y., in April 
1859. In May, 1861, he married Miss Mary Ellen 
Gregory at Mexico, N. Y., her native town. 
Their son is Wm. G. Baker, the Superintendent 
and Treasurer of the Poughkeepsie,N. Y., glass 
works and the daughter is Mrs. H. D. Traver of 
East Orange, N. J. 

James C. Atkins was a conspicuous figure in 
the early history of Clyde, a man of considera- 
bly more than ordinary ability, a high church- 
man in his religious views and a prosperous bus- 
iness man, accumulating quite a little property 
after coming to Clyde. He was one of the or- 
ganizers of the Episcopal church, very active in 
the business affairs of the society. Physically 
large and fine looking, dignified in his bearing and 
somewhat stiff and considerable of a conversa- 
tionalist his presence was felt wherever he went. 
He came to Clyde an entire stranger to the com- 
munity. It was in 1836, when the large part of 
the business of the village was due to the canal. 
First he located in the American house at the 
lock as a barber, then opened a shop in a small 
building on the east side of Glasgow street. By 
combining the business of a shop keeper with 
that of barber and by living economically he 
after a time accumulated considerable property. 
Then he erected a business block and in that he 
carried on his business until he died, March 19, 
1868. He left no descendants of whom anyone 
in Clyde has any knowledge. He was married 
when he came here but it was some time after 
coming that he sent to England for his wife. 
Her death preceded his. He left the bulk if not 
all of his fortune to a young man whom he had 
employed as a clerk and whom he considered as 
an adopted son. Atkins always represented 
himself to have served, before coming to Amer- 
ica, as valet to the Prince of Wales (King 




ALBERT F. REDFIELD. 

George IV). He was born at Norwich, Eng., 
Aug. 1, 1801, and married when nineteen years 
old. The ten years following he spent as a gro- 
cer in London, then sailed for America. Before 
coming to Clyde he occupied a tract of land in 
Cattaraugus county which he partially cleared 
and on which he raised a few crops. 



•'GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



33 




J. C. ATKINS. 
Reminiscences of Clyde in 1839; The Girls 
Then Made the Household Clothing: — 
Mrs. Carrie German, who resides on the south 
side of the river, relates interesting personal ex- 
periences showing the manner in which people 
reached Clyde in the early years of its history, 
when the packet boats on the big ditch were the 
best means for getting into this section. Her 
parents moved to Clyde from Fishkill, N. Y. , in 
May, 1839, and were eight days— her mother and 
two children — on an ordinary canal boat in 
coming. The cost of the passage was $5, with 
the privilege of using the tables and stove after 
the cabin passengers were through with their 
meals. German's mother may be said to have 
taken steerage passage, bringing her own food 
along or purchasing it on the way and doing her 
ewn cooking. In the forward end of the boat 
was a public cabin. Amidships was the ladies' 
cabin and in the rear the cook's galley. At 
night the berths were made up in the cabins and 
the next morning taken down. They consisted 
of frames with sacks hung from the ceiling. 
The bedding was placed in lockers and the berths 
were used through the day for seats. They 
were landed at the lock at the foot of Lock 
street. We will finish the story in Mrs. Ger- 
man's own words: 

"The morning we got off the boat," she said, 
"we went into a sitting room of a hotel which 
stood near the lock. It was Harry Goodchild's 
hotel and was on the site of what is now Gil- 
lett's cold storage house. As I recall it the 
building was a two-story brick structure with 
balconies on the east and south sides. From 
there we went out to our new home which was 
on the Will Hunt farm north of the village, and 
were at once domiciled in a log house which had 
been built by David Tuttle. 

"I remember Gen. Adams well. He lived in 
the old farm house on Lawyer Robinson's place. 
My folks attended the Baptist church in this vil- 
lage. When I was old enough to come to school, 
a few years later, I attended Miss Allen's select 
school which was up stairs in a building that 
stood on the north-east corner of Glasgow and 
Caroline streets. I also went one year to school 
up stairs over Saxton & Terry's harness shop 
where the bank is now, which was taught by 



Harriett Groom, who was very particular what 
scholars she took in. 

"There was a large mill down by the river, 
just east of Glasgow street, and between it and 
the river was a mineral spring gushing the same 
kind of water we now get in the park. At noon 
we children used to run around the corner of the 
mill to play. I remember the carding machine 
that stood west of Glasgow street. 

"At that time a ravine ran along the north 
shore of the river, about between what are now 
the railroad tracks and the canal, and a small 
stream of water flowed east through the ravine. 
This gully was filled in when they put through 
the railroad. 

' 'The old Baptist church building was then the 
structure of the present except that it has been 
built on in front. The old Free Methodist church 
stood where the Methodist Episcopal church 
now stands. The Presbyterian church was a 
frame budding standing on the present site of 
that church. The Episcopal church was on the 
east side of Glasgow street about opposite the 
hotel and next to the church was a bank build- 
ing which is now on Sodus street, converted into 
the residence of Charles Zeluff. The factory 
tenement row as we called it now on Columbia 
street then stood on West Genesee street. 

"Where the Catholic church now stands and 
north to the forks in the road was a swamp 
which was crossed by a road made by laying logs 
side by side. 

"I remember the brick yard which was then 
on what is now the Ely estate and the ground all 
around there covered with brick. A big brick 
kiln stood near the road and ox teams were used 
on the premises. 

"I also remember Julius and Frederick Bella- 
my and their store which was on the east side of 
Glasgow street. 

"My father, Benjamin Genung, was a farmer 
who drove his team to Clyde from our home on 
the Hudson river when my mother was coming 
west on the canal boat. He was a thrifty farm- 
er and my mother was equally as industrious. 
The children all had their tasks to perform. Sit- 
ting about the table at night we girls had to knit 




GEORGE O. BAKER. 



34 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



or spin. All of the white goods used in our fam- 
ily we made ourselves, undergarments, sheets, 
pillow cases, tablecloths, towels, etc. Most of 
them were linen which we spun from the flax 
that my father raised. We spun all of the linen 
thread that we used in our family. Father made 
all of the rope, halters and such things that he 
used and sold considerable besides. We girls 
knit all of our own stockings. In those times it 
was said that a girl must knit herself a pillow 
case full of stockings before she should think of 
getting married. We bleached the goods white 
by spreading them upon the grass fastened at 
the corners -and dampened every day so as to 
draw the sun. Down on the flats father raised 
the flax and after pulling it and threshing it on 
the barn floor with a flail, he laid it out on the 
meadow to dry out, or rot as he called it. Then 
it had to be broken by laying it upon a frame 
and striking it with a wooden knife. It was 
then crackled to get off the bark or covering and 
then hetcheled with coarse and fine hetchles 
made by driving nails into a board. To hetchle 
it was the same as combing- it. The flax was 




EARLY ACTIVE EPISCOPALIANS. 



Joseph Watson. 

Seth and Sarahette Smith. 



Jacob Scott. 
Homer Daboll. 



then chivied and it was then soft and pliable. 
After being tied in a knot into what we called 
heads— it was laid away. When we wanted to 
spin we took out the knots and hetchled it again. 
Then we would spin it on large or small- wheels. 
The tow father got from it we made into rope. 
We girls used to take the heads for dolls." 

Prominent Episcopalians: — Jacob Scott 
was born in New Jersey January 31, 1803. He 
was by trade a hatter. He removed to western 
New York about the year 1828 and settled at 
Tyre City, Seneca county, where at that time 
there was a large hat factory. He married 
Charlotte Brink, by whom he had one child, 
Henry T. Scott. Mrs. S. died at Tyre about the 
year 1831, and he then moved to Clyde where he 
spent the remainder of his life. He was en- 
gaged in the manufacture and sale of hats, caps 
and furs until the year 1878 when he moved to 
Canada where he resided until the year 1881 
when he returned to Clyde where he died Aug. 



18, 1887. He was a prominent Odd Fellow, hav- 
ing been initiated into the Galen Lodge soon 
after its institution. He was one of the charter 
members of Siloam Encampment. Both the 
lodge and Camp died out in the decline of Odd 
Fellowship in 1860. He was one of the charter 
members of Clyde Lodge, No. 300, which was 
instituted in February, 1872, and soon thereafter 
became a member of Mount Hope Encampment 
at Rochester, N. Y., continuing his membership 
in- both of these bodies until his death; and he 
filled all the principal offices in both the lodge 
and the camp, and also served several terms as 
district deputy. He was buried in Maple Grove 
cemetery with the honors of the order. He was 
for many years a vestryman of St. John's Epis- 
copal church. He was modest and retiring and 
never sought political preferment. But during 
his long life in Clyde there was no one who was 
better known or more respected than "Scott, the 
Hatter." 

Homer Daboll, who came to Clyde in 1867 has 
since continuously served as vestryman and war- 
den of St. John's Episcopal church. He was 
born in Canaan, Litchfield county, Ct., July 18, 
1827, and was a relative of the late Nathan 
Daboll, the American mathematician and the 
author of Daboll 's arithmetic as well as other 
mathematical works. 

Joseph Watson, whose name is well known as 
one of the early pioneers of Galen, was one of 
the founders of St. John's Episcopal church, 
where for many years he was the chorister, lead- 
ing the music which then included a violin, flute 
and bass viol. Mr. Watson was prominent in 
the state as an agriculturist and was active in 
the early period of the State Agricultural Socie- 
ty of which he was one of the most useful mem- 
bers. He brought the first mowing machine into 
this section of the country. 

Seth and Sarahette Smith were very active 
and valued supporters of St. John's Episcopal 
church, and were beloved by everybody. The 
east chancel window is a memorial to Mrs. Smith 
who was so close to the affections of the com- 
munity as well as the church that she was called 
"Auntie Smith." Mr Smith was for many 
years vestryman and at the time of the erection 
of the new church he was a member of the build- 
ing committee. He was quite active in the gen- 
eral affairs of the community and was a promi- 
nent mason. For several years he was trustee 
of the Clyde High school. 

Frederick Agustus, Baron De Zeng, should 
be designated as the "father of Clyde," since it 
was he who having purchased a large tract of 
ground on which Clyde stands of McLouth, the 
earliest large land owner here, furnished the 
money and ambition to open the village to com- 
merce and industry, erecting mills here and lay- 
ing out the village south of the river. All of 
the business section of Clyde, and most of the 
residential section, if indeed not the whole of it, 
stands on the land which the Baron purchased 
when it was entirely unopened to settlement, 
and placed on the market. Several of his de- 
scendants are living in Clyde, and his name is 
indelibly linked to the village. He was born in 
Dresden, the capital of Saxony, in 1756, the sec- 
ond son of Baron De Zeng of Ruckerswalde- 
Wolkenstein, near Marienberg, in Saxony, Lord 
Chamberlain to the Duchess of Saxe-Weissenf els 
and High Forest-Officer to the King of Saxony 
by his wife, Lady -Johanna Phillipina von Ponic- 



'GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



35 



kau, of Altenberg. He received a military ed- 
ucation, and at the age of eighteen, Feb. 11, 
1774, was commissioned as "Lieutenant of the 
Guards" in the service of the Landgrave of 
Hesse-Cassel. After serving in the campaigns 




WM. S. DE ZENG. 

in Moravia and Bohemia he received a high court 
appointment from his King. It was during suc- 
ceeding years, in which he travelled considerably, 
that an intimacy sprang up between him and 
Baron de Steuben whose name is so much re- 
vered by Americans. 

Quite late in the Revolutionary war Baron De 
Zeng came to America as captain in the regi- 
ment of the hereditary Prince of Saxony. This 
was 1780. Here he exchanged regiments and re- 
ceived the commission of captain in the "Regi- 
ment de Corps," which was part of the Hessian 
force serving tbe British Crown. Stationed in 
the city of New York and its neighborhood so 
late in the war he never engaged in conflict with 
the Americans. He determined to make Amer- 
ica his home and on the 8th of November, 1783, 
he received an honorable discharge from the 
German service In 1784, he married, in Trinity 
church. New York, Miss Mary Lawrence, the 
daughter of Caleb and Sarah (Burling) Lawrence 
of Flushing, L. I., a lady of extraordinary beau- 
ty. They took up their residence at Red Hook, 
Dutchess county, N. Y., where the Baron pur- 
chased an estate. 

On November 3, 1789, he was naturalized as 
an American citizen in the Mayor's court of 
New York and he thereafter dropped his heredi- 
tary title and simply signed himself Frederick 
A. De Zeng. On January 13, 1792, he was com- 
missioned by Gov. George Clinton "Major Com- 
mandant of a Battalion of Militia in the county 
of Ulster," where he had in the meantime be- 
come joint owner of a large tract of land with 
Chancellor Livingston. 

Baron De Zeng made his first visit to this sec- 
tion of the state by the direction of Gov. Clinton 
during 1790, to inquire into the proposed opening 
of interior water communications. During the 
next two years he made several trips into this 
country and spent considerable time among the 
Indians, with whom on different occasions he 
was commissioned to confer in behalf of the 
state. 

The Major, as he was now called, became con- 
nected with Gen. Schuyler in establishing and 
carrying on the "Western Inland Lock Naviga- 
tion Company," and during the time when the 



locks in the canal and Mohawk river were being 
built at Little Falls he lived there with his fami- 
ly. That possesses local interest in Clyde since 
it was while the femily were there that the fifth 
child, William Steuben de Zeng was born. Wil- 
liam Steuben de Zeng after his father had 
bought the present site of Clyde and before any 
lots or streets were laid out, purchased the tract 
of his father; and it was William Steuben de 
Zeng who personally took part in opening up the 
village to settlement and in fact in ordering the 
surveys for the lots and streets. It must be 
borne in mind that this refers to the north side 
of the river, for on the south side there had al- 
ready sprung up a village, which was then, or 
originally, called Lauraville. 

Major De Zeng about the year 1796 with Jere- 
miah Van Rensselaer and Abraham Ten Eyck es- 
tablished at Hamilton, near Albany, the first 
window glass factory of magnitude in this coun- 
try. 

In 1814 and 1815 the Major led in the enter- 
prise of constructing the Chemung canal and 
personally inspected the great water sheds of 
Central and Western New York. He resided at 
Kingston, N. Y., many years and subsequently 
at Bainbridge, N. Y., where he built and owned 
the bridge over the Susquehanna river. His long 
active life closed in Clyde April 26, 1838, at the 
age of 82 years, he at that time having two mar- 
ried children residing here. 

William Steuben De Zeng is well known in 
connection with the history of Clyde as he was 
one of the first owners of land on the present 
site of the village, and particularly because he 
was one of the men who established the glass 
works in this village. More than that it was 
due to Mr. De Zeng that the village lots and 
streets were laid out, he at that time owning 
the land that comprised what is now the heart of 
the village. Although Mr. De Zeng's home was 
in Geneva he spent much of his time in Clyde 
and it is well known that in later years of his 
life he was fond of talking over the years he 
spent in this village, and it was his desire that 




From Old Photo. 
MAJ. FREDERICK A. DE ZENG, 



36 



'GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



the village should grow and prosper. He was 
born in Little Falls, N. Y., in 1793, at the time 
his parents were living there temporarily, his 
father being financially interested in the West- 
ern Inland Navigation Company, a large public 
work which was then going on in that village 
and which he was there to oversee. Maj. De 
Zeng's intimate friend was Baron Steuben, the 
patriot of the revolution, and the son born at 
Little Falls was named after him, with the re- 
sult that the boy received from the Baron the 
latter's portrait and 1,000 acres of land in the 
Mohawk valley. 

Mr. De Zeng in his early life engaged in raan- 
utacturing glass at Geneva, then he planted the 
same industry at Blossburgh, Pa., where he car- 
ried it on for many years, shipping glass to 
Europe and all over the United States. For 
some years he was president of the Manhattan 
Life Insurance Company of New York. After 
the outbreak of the war he was located in Wash- 
ington as War Claims Agent and then he retired 



United States courts, after he had passed his 
eightieth birthday. He laid out the park in this 
village. 

Clyde Lodge, No. 300, I. O. O. F., was in- 
stituted Feb. 19, 1872, by Acting Grand Master 
L. B. Keeler assisted by J. D. Ford, W. Bartel, 
C. A. Hersey, R. L. Pritchard, G. Henry Rob- 
erts, B. F. Thomas, H. F. C. Moyer. The char- 
ter members were Jacob Scott, Jacob Van Bus- 
kirk, Nathan Hqvey, Geo. P. Livingstone, Pros- 
per Sloan, J. M. Curry, Perry Furlong, B. Brew- 
ster, P. Simons. 

The first officers of the Lodge were:— Jacob 
Scott, N. G. ; G. P. Livingstone, V. G. ; J. M. 
Curry, Sec. ; N. Hovey, Treas. ; J. P. Van Bus- 
kirk, Warden; De L. Stow, Conductor; P. 
Simmons, R. S. N. G. ; A. E. Adams, L. S. N. 
G.; P. Sloan, O. G. ; B. Brewster, D. G.; J. E. 
McGinnis, R. S. V. G. ; P. Furlong, L. S. V. G. 

De L. Stow, A. E. Adams and J. E. McGin- 
nis were given the initiory degree on the night 




Shipler, Photo. 



CLYDE LODGE, NO. 300. I. O. O. F., OFFICERS 1904. 



Top Row (left to right) : J. H. Lux, W. A. Hinman, Dr. G. D. Barrett, Thomas Brooks, A. B. Benninghoff, C. H. Tuck, 
W. A. Hoffman. Middle Row: G. J. Lauster, Dr. C. E. Zeluff, C. F. Britton, G. A. Burgdorf, J. W. H. Shipler, Lower Row: 
A, Woehr, W. A. Powers, C. B. Kelsey. 



to his beautiful home at Geneva, which was pur- 
chased from Maj. Rees' heirs. "Kiowilla" 
was the name given to this splendid place by 
Henry R. Schoolcraft, the historian of the ab- 
originees of this country. The spot is historic 
because it was a favorite rendezvous of the 
Seneca Indians. 

Here Mr. De Zeng spent his last days, his 
death occurring Aug. 15, 1882, he being then in 
his ninetieth year. The wife of Mr. De Zeng 
was Caroline, the daughter of Maj. Charles 
Rees. Mr. De Zeng obtained the charter for 
Hobart college and was one of its mainstays, 
being chairman of the board of trustees at the 
time of his death. His son-in-law, Clarence A. 
Seward, endowed the institution and after his 
death his widow, Caroline De Zeng Seward, 
made an endowment in memory of her husband. 

He was admitted at Washington as an attor- 
ney and counsellor at law to practice in the 



of the institution. All of the charter members 
have passed away. The three initiates are still 
living and are members in good standing. Dur- 
ing the thirty years of the lodge's existence it 
has grown numerically and influential. To-day 
it is one of the banner lodges of the state. 

The present officers are:— N. G., George Burg- 
dorf; V. G., A. Woehr; R. S., J. W. Shipler; F. 
S., C. E. Zeluff; Treas., John Stock; R. S. N. 
G., W. A. Hinman; L. S. N. G., A. B. Benning- 
hoff; W., W. E. Powers; C, S. Horton; R. S. 
S., C. F. Cotton; L. S. S., Charles Knight; I. 
G., V. Klein; O. G., F. C. Horton; R. S. V. G., 
John Lux; L. S. V. G., W. H. Hoffman. 

Clyde Lodge, No. 300. I. O. O. F., was first 
instituted as Galen Lodge, No. 198, in January, 
1846, on the petition of Zina Hooker, Joseph 
Congdon, Isaac Miller, Aaron Brooks and others. 
The Charter Noble Grand was Zina Hooker and 
the Charter Vice Grand Joseph Congdon. In 



'GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



37 



1848 the lodge was renumbered, 36. It contin- 
ued its work until 1860 when it was discontin- 
ued Siloam Encampment, which was organized 
from that lodge, existed about ten years and 
was discontinued two years earlier than the 



Canton Galen, No. 49, I. 0. O. F., was mus- 
tered August 8, 1893, with twenty-one members 
and the following officers: — Capt., C. H. Ford: 
Lieutenant, Thomas Howes; Ensign, D. L. Ed- 
wards; Clerk, J. W. H. Shipler; Accountant, E. 
F. Stoetzel. 

Early Manufacturers; The Pioneers Made 
Potash for Albany; Distilleries and Malt 
Houses were Numerous; Several Grist Mills; 
The Old Typewriter Works. 
The earliest industries in Clyde were located 

here in 1818 by Maj. Frederick A. De Zeng. On 



Roberts & Rose. The building was eventually 
turned into a dwelling and finally torn down. 
When Mr. Scott got out of the first tannery he 
came over to the north side of the river and 
started another tannery. Some time before 1835 
it passed into the hands of Root & King. 

John Y. Andrews at an early period also started 
a tannery on the south side of the river. It was 
conducted successively by Adam Fisher, Albert 
F. Redfield and E. P. & L. S. Taylor. George Z. 
Taylor turned it into a cider mill. The building 
is now used by the Wayne County Cider and 
Vinegar Company. 

One of the landmarks of more than fifty years 
ago was the old grist mill and carding machine 
put up by Fredius Chapman east of Rodwell's 
foundry. 

John M. Spencer, now doing business on Co- 
lumbia street, built a planing mill on Sodus 
street in the north part of the town. The mill 




Shipler, Photo. 



CLYDE ENCAMPMENT. NO. 139, OFFICERS 1904. 



Lower Row (left to right) -C. H. Tuck. A. Woehr. C. F. Lux, G. A. Jones. Upper Row-V. Klein, P. R. Cotton, George 
Burgdorf, G. J. Lauster, G. A. Rodwell, John Stock, Thomas Howes, Thomas Brooks, 



the south side of the river he put up a grist mill 
and on the north side a saw mill combined with 
a fulling and carding establishment. 

With the earliest settlers came asheries where 
potash was made to be taken to Albany in bar- 
rels. Most of the pioneers had asheries on their 
place. A sleigh load of potash brought them 
more money than the amount of grain they could 
take to Albany, which in the first two decades 
of the last century was the market for agricul- 
turalists in the remote sections of the state. In 
this village there were a number of asheries. 
Within the recollection of some of the older peo- 
ple of to-day there was one on De Zeng street 
near the brook, in the eastern part of the village, 
where the double frame and brick dwelling now 
stands. 

Isaac Scott, a Quaker, built and carried on the 
first tannery in Clyde. Wm. Andrews was his 
partner for a while, then the business passed to 



was finally moved across the river into the build- 
ing that was later converted into the Humphrey 
foundry. 

COACH LACE. 

A. F. Terry and Judge Saxton's father en- 
gaged in the manufacture of coach lace, more 
than half a century ago, in the building next to 
the north-east corner of Glasgow and East Gen- 
esee streets. 

The Clyde Iron Works was established in 1831 
by Condit & Van Buren, who were followed by 
Whiting, Humphrey & Co., who in 1845 erected 
the stone building. From time to time the works 
changed hands, in the following order:— Millard 
Olmstead; Chester A. Ward; Frank Humphrey; 
Humphrey & Sayles; S. J. Sayles; Ambrose 
Field; and in 1866 Wood, Chandler & Co. F. 
Humphrey afterwards carried on a foundry over 
the river which was later operated by Humphrey 
& Dolph and the Galen Agricultural and Manu- 



38 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



facturing Company. It was finally converted 
into an evaporator, and later when the West 
Shore railroad came in, the building was torn 
down. 

The history of the glass works is published 
elsewhere in this work. 

GRIST MILLS. 

The first steam grist mill in Clyde was known 
as the Black Hawk mill which stood near the 
present site of the Clyde steam mills. It was 
burned about 1845 or '46. 

A large white grist mill stood for many years 
on the north side of the canal a short distance 
west of Sodus street. It was a three story 
frame building with a basement and had six run 
of stone, which were driven by steam. Ford & 
Smith erected the structure in 1843. In 1851 it 
passed into the hands of Aaron Griswold and was 
conducted as a distillery by Griswold, Ely & Co. 
until 1854 when the firm changed to Briggs, 
Coffin & Co. The building was burned in 1856 
or '57. 



the West Shore Railroad Company which tore 
down the building. 

JONES' TYPEWRITERS. 

Along in 1852 or '53 Mr. Jones, who was then 
running a wagon shop on Ford street, began the 
manufacture of a typewriter which he had in- 
vented. Hiram Hovey took an interest in the 
business and for a time it gave promise of be- 
coming a success. But it was doomed to failure 
and Mr. Jones was next found in Palmyra making 
printing presses. 

Thomas Hopkins & Son erected a sash and 
blind factory south of the river, along in the 
seventies. The West Shore Company came along 
and tore down the building, by right of pur- 
chase. 

PRINT PAPER. 

The Clyde Paper Manufacturing Co., of which 
Aaron Griswold was president, began manufac- 
turing print paper in February, 1866. The big 
building in which the plant was operated is still 
standing, south of the river. This was the first 



1 

■■Hi *vK9 




■if ^ ■■■•'.; ■!/■■„ " » ■'* : Vii-"*"^ 






V* * 







Shipler. Photo. 



CANTON GALEN, NO. 49. OFFICERS 1904. 



Lower Row (left to right)— George Burgdorf, Dr. G. D. Barrett, G. J. Lauster, 
M. A. Fisher, John Stock, C. H. Tuck, C. H. Ford, Thomas Howes. 



Upper Row— D. L. Edwards, G. A. Jones, 



"The old yellow mill" stood on the north shore 
of the river about 100 feet east of Glasgow street, 
and the power was furnished by a race which 
was built by Maj. Frederick De Zeng. The 
building, for this section, was an imposing struc- 
ture five stories high, broad and deep. It was 
one of the earliest of the large mills erected in 
this section and was well known for miles around. 
Col. Timothy Jenkins was one of the earliest and 
best known of its proprietors. Another was 
Capt. Luther Redfield. When the Syracuse and 
Rochester Railroad Company bought "the right of 
way through this village it had to purchase the 
mill. The building then stood idle some years 
before the railroad company tore it down, which 
was just before the war. 

The old Joel Thorne saw mill on the south side 
of the river was built by Caleb Howard who sold 
it to S. H. Skinner. The next proprietors were 
Skinner & Perry. Mr. Skinner retired and Mr. 
Perry sold out to Wm. Gillett. Joel Thorne 
afterwards bought the property and sold it to 



venture in the manufacture of paper in Clyde. 
The capacity of the plant was twelve tons a 
week. 

The First National Paper Manufacturing Co. 
of Clyde, of which Darwin Colvin was president, 
began the manufacture of Manilla wrapping pa- 
per in September, 1867. The company converted 
the old Redfield distillery on Ford street into a 
factory. The capacity was nine tons per week. 

OLD DISTILLERIES. 

During the early period of Clyde's history 
there were three distilleries here. That west of 
the upper canal bridge, on the north side of the 
canal, was built by Ford & Smith for a steam 
mill (the white mill already spoken of). 

On Ford street east of Wood's steam mill was 
a distillery built by A. C. Howe, A. F. Redfield, 
H. H. Stevens and Wm. C. Ely. In 1859 this 
distillery was being conducted by the firm of 
Ford, Ely & Co., composed of Byron Ford, Wm. 
C. Ely, Hiram H. Groesbeck and John C. Miller. 



'GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



39 



Later, Dr Linus Ely succeeded to the interest 
of Mr. Groesbeck. After the building had been 
abandoned by the paper company, which occu- 
pied it for a time, the property was to have been 
converted into a distillery by Elliott, Redfield & 
Co. but the project was never fully carried out. 

The third distillery which stood east of the 
pi*esent residence of Jerome Davis, was built by 
Col. Briggs. This distillery was run by Briggs 
& Thorn; afterwards by a man by the name of 
Ketchum and still later by A. F. Redfield. 

All three of the distilleries have been burned. 
MALT HOUSE. 

In 1877 Clyde had nine malt houses in opera- 
tion which were receiving 228,000 bushels of 
grain a year. They gradually disappeared until 
now there is only one in operation. 

Abner Hind was the first maltster in this lo- 
cality, he being located on the river two miles 
east of Clyde. 

There was a small malt house between Wood's 



H. H. Stevens had a malt house on Ford street 
where he carried on the business up to some 
time during the sixties. Mr. Stevens had taken 
an old brick dwelling and converted it into the 
purpose for which it was used. At that time 
this building stood between the Streeter ware- 
house and Thomas Newlove's brewery. Thomas 
P. Tnorne bought the three buildings and recon- 
structed them into the present malt house. 

Mclntyre & Warner erected the building on 
the sjutn side of the canal now occupied by 
Welch Bros, for their grain and produce business 
and afterwards converted it into a malt house. 

Arthur Smith erected the malt house now oc- 
cupied by Thomas P. Topping, which stands on 
the site of the old Franklin House. 

Thomas P. Thorne bought the Clyde paper 
mill on the south side of the river, west of the 
village, and converted it into a malt house. It 
is now in use for storing flaggs. 

James M Nichols who was engaged in the 




Shipler, Photo. 



Lower Row (left to right)— D. Jones, Chas. Groesbeck 
A. Hutchins, E. Gridley. 

steam grist mill and the canal which belonged 
to the mill property but which never amounted 
to very much. 

The second malt house in the village was built 
by Charles E. Elliott, who engaged in the busi- 
ness up to the time of his death which occurred 
in 1873. The business was continued a good 
many years after by different people and finally 
it was shut down. The building, now the prop- 
erty of S. W. Wood & Son, is used by them for 
storage. , . 

Thomas Smith erected a malt house at the 
foot of East Genesee street and ran it for sev- 
eral years. It finally became the property of 
the American Malting Co., and now stands idle 

The Greenway malt house as it is called, was 
erected by Charles Gordon for his grain and 
produce business. It passed into the hands of 
S. D & J. N. Streeter who converted it into a 
malt house. Then for a time it was the prop- 
erty of George B. Greenway. 



SNEDAKER POST. NO. 173, G. A. R. 

, L. Nichols, A. Sloan. Upper Row — D. Allen, V. Klein, 



grain and produce business, enlarged his build- 
ing and converted it into a malt house. It is 
now occupied by Burt Bros. & Lang. 

Historic Tree— In 1834 a white oak tree two 
miles west of Lyons, measuring 4 1 2 feet in diam- 
eter, was cut down. In the body of the tree, 
about 3 L 4 feet from the ground, was found a 
large and deep cutting by an axe which had sev- 
ered the heart of the tree and which exhibited 
with perfect distinctness the marks of the axe. 
This cavity was encased by 460 years growth of 
the wood— as shown by 460 layers of timber, 
showing that the axe had been driven into the 
tree 460 years prior to the time it was cut down, 
about 1372, which is 120 years before Columbus 
discovered America. The tree was cut by James 
P. Bartell of Newark, a forwarding merchant, 
and the timber was used in constructing a mer- 
chandise boat named "Newark" which was run 
on the canal. 



40 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 




REV. F. N. BOUCK. 

St. John's Episcopal church of Clyde was in- 
corporated September 26, 1840, the articles being 
signed by Rev. Benjamin W. Stone, rector, and 
Wm. S. Stow and Richard L. Lawrence, and on 
that date the following vestrymen and wardens 
were elected: — Wardens, Charles A. Rose and 
James C. Atkins; Vestrymen, Wm. H. Griswold, 
Josiah N. Westcott, William S. Stow, James R. 
Rees, Daniel H. Allen, Henry Goodchild, Charles 
D. Lawton and Wm. H. Adams. At a meeting 
in March, 1841, Josiah N. Westcott, Wm. H. 
Griswold and Henry Goodchild were chosen a 
committee to arrange for building a church, with 
the result that in the fall of that year a building 
was erected on a lot at the foot of North Park 
street, now occupied by the Harmony Hall block, 
and the church was consecrated April 18, 1842, 
by Rt. Rev W. H. De Lancey. 

The lot on the north side of North Park street, 
where the church was standing at the time of 



its destruction by fire in 1883, was purchased in 
1845 and in November of that year the edifice 
was removed thereto During the summer of 
1849 the church building was enlarged by adding 
to the north end, Rev. C. G. Ackley and Joseph 
Watson having charge of the work. 

In April, 1865, a house and lot on Sodus street 
north of Caroline street was purchased for a 
rectory. In the summer of 1868 the church 
building was further enlarged by the erection of 
a tower in front and an organ chamber on one 
side. 

On September 11, 1883, the church was totally 
destroyed by a fire which originated in the barns 
of the Clyde hotel. 

On September 17, 1883, the vestry decided to 
rebuild at once and on November 15th following 
the parish voted that the old church lot and rec- 
tory property be sold and that the house and lot 
on the north-east corner of West Genesee and 
Lock streets be purchased as a site for the 
church. The vestry on the same day ratified 
this action. Plans for the new church were 
adopted May 7, 1884, and on August 11, 1884, 
Seth Smith, De Lancey Stow and Henry Cady 
were appointed the building committee. The 
work on the church began August 16, 1884. The 
corner stone was laid with appropriate ceremo- 
nies. 

Memorable official services in the parish: — 
James Atkins served as a warden or vestryman 
continuously from the organization of the parish 
to the time of his decease, March 19, 1868. 
Charles A. Rose, who died February 19, 1875, 
served as a warden or vestryman for twenty- 
eight years. William S. Stow, who died August 
20, 1880, served as a warden or vestryman thirty- 
five years. Seth Smith served as vestryman 
from 1843 to the time of his removal from Clyde. 
Malcolm Linte was a member of the vestry from 
1845 to the time of his death. 

Complete list of the Rectors of St. John's Par- 
ish:— Rev. Benj. Stone, D. D., from the organ- 
ization to April, 1841; Rev. Levi H. Corson, 
from May 10, 1841, to May 16, '46; Rev. Charles 
G. Ackley, June 1, 1846, to April 21, '51; Rev. 
Charles H. Gardner, 1851-'2; Rt. Rev. Wm. 
Paret, D. D., August 1852, to Nov. 1, '54; Rev. 
Aaron Van Ostrand, Sept. 1855, to Nov. 1, '60; 




THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND RECTORY. 



'GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



41 



Rev. Addis E. Bishop, Jan. 1, 1861, to Dec. 1, 
'61; Rev. Frederick Luson, Jan. to Nov., 1862; 
Rev. Robert Wall, April, 1863, to May, '64; Rev. 
Richard T. Kerfoot, Feb. 26, to April 23, 1865; 
Rev. Robert Dobyns, Aug. 28, 1865,. to Sept. 1, 
'66; Rev. Louis B. Van Dyck, Oct. 21, 1866, to 
Feb. 1, '71; Rev. T. G. Clemson, July 16, 1871, 
to July 16, '73; Rev. Wm. H. Lord, Jan. 1, 1874, 
to May 1, '76; Rev. J. G. Van Ingen, Sept. 17, 
1876, to Dec. 1, '77; Rev. Wm. Stow, April 15, 
1878, to Sept. 1, '82; Rev. Hobart B. Whitney, 

Nov. 1, 1882, to ; Rev. James G. Lewis, 

Dec. 1, 1886, for a few weeks; Rev. Septimus C. 
Thicke, Jan. 1, 1887, to Feb. '89; Rev. John 
Evans, Aug. 1, 1889, to Nov. 23, '91; Rev. Rich- 
ard T. Kerfoot, Dec. 13, 1891, to Feb. '95; Rev. 
B. F. Miller, April 25, 1895, to Feb. 24, '97: 
Rev. Louis P. Franklin, June 15, 1897, to June 
30, 1900; Rev. L. T. Scofield, July 5, 1900, to 
Feb. 1, '01; Rev. F. N. Bouck, May 1, 1901, 
present rector. 

Ushers of the Presbyterian Church — The ac- 
companying plate gives the portraits of the 
ushers of the Presbyterian church, the young 



tezuma turnpike, the main highway — the only 
one east and west for a few years — passed 
through this village, and upon this road the 
stages running between Utica and Geneva and 
Canandaigua were drawn by four horses for 
about seven or eight years before there was any 
other means of getting through this section ex- 
cept with private conveyances. 

Loami Beadle, the first settler in Marengo, 
built the section of this turnpike between Mon- 
tezuma and Lyons somewhere between 1818 and 
and 1822. From that time until 1826 when pack- 
ets began running on the canal the turnpike 
monopolized the transportation business. But 
stages continued running on it for some years 
after until, in fact the railroad was built through 
Auburn, Seneca Falls and other towns on that 
line. 

Thomas Beadle owned the land when his son 
Loami moved over there to the present site of 
Marengo and built a dwelling in 1800. Then he 
constructed a sawmill and planted an orchard. 
In 1818 the postoffice was established there in 
the store of Cyrus Smith, the first postmaster. 
This, the first store was erected by Edward G. 




Shipler, Photo. 



USHERS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



Lower Row (left to right)— F. B. Baker. Porter Powers, Lloyd Stevens, Charles Miller, Fred Ketchum. 
George Millard, Ralph Brown, Louis KelloR-g, John Lux, Leon Ketchum, Eber Inman, Guy Van Wickle, 



Upper Row- 



men to whom is almost altogether due the im- 
pression the stranger gets of the congregation 
at the time he first attends services in a church, 
for it is the young man who politely ushers him 
to aseat in whose disposition lies the opportu- 
nity of making a stranger feel at home. The 
Presbyterians of Clyde are well served in respect 
to their ushers— young men who are in business 
or school at Clyde or who come from the farm, 
for they are ever courteous and well understand 
what is due to their not unimportant positions in 
the church. The ushers are elected every year. 
The young men in the accompanying group are 
most of them serving their second year, and it 
is the general opinion of the congregation they 
so well serve that the choice of ushers was well 
made. 

Marengo is the mother of the sister villages 
of the town of Galen. The first mails and the 
first public conveyances coming into the town 
made Marengo the distributing point. The Mon- 



Ludlow. The same year Edward Wing built and 
opened a tavern and Nathan Blodgett an ashery. 
In 1828 J. M. Watson built the second tavern. 

These taverns accommodated a good many 
guests in the course of the year, the stages usu- 
ally stopping here for midday lunch and at times 
for supper. Blizzards of snow sometimes held a 
coach and the passengers here over night. At 
other times a heavy blockade shut Marengo out 
from the world for days at a time. 

When in 1818 the mail route was established 
the pouches were thrown off here to be opened 
and the mail assorted to be sent north. At one 
time the mail was carried over the road on horse- 
back and Mr. Knapp was one of the mounted 
mail carriers of those days. 

In 1816 the half dozen families here wanted a 
school, so one was opened that year, Samuel 
Stone teaching. Two years later Joseph Watson 
taught the same school. James McBride was an- 
other of the early schoolmasters. 



42 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 




REV. J. J. GLEASON. 

St. John's Catholic Church — As early as 
about 1840 services were held in this village, in 
various private buildings, this then being only a 
mission. Father O'Brien while in charge, com- 
ing here from Lyons to attend this small congre- 
gation of faithful Catholics, built a small church, 
the first Catholic church building in the village, 
on De Zeng street west of the present Catholic 
church. This served the purpose of the mission 
for some years. During Father Fitz Patrick's 
time the foundation of the present structure was 
laid. The building was completed by Rev. J. P. 
Stewart and dedicated in 1869, the first mass 
held in the beautiful house 
of worship being mid-night 
mass of Christmas day that 
year. The first rectory, 
now the house of Mr. Gor- 
don, stood on the hill west 
of the church. It was the 
home of the first resident 
priest in the parish, Rev. 
J. Constant, who came to 
Clyde in June, 1859. The 
next rectory was across the 
street from the present 
church building. The house 
is now owned by Mrs. P. 
G. Dennison. The present 
rectory was purchased by 
Rev. P. W. O'Connel in 
1872, who caused to be built 
an upright front giving the 
building very graceful pro- 
portions. It stands next 
south to the church and is 
a commodious and attrac- 
tive rectory. On January 
1, 1900, during the time of 
Rev. J. J. Gleason, the en- 
tire debt of the parish was 
paid off and the mortgages 
destroyed. In 1901 the fin- 
ishing touches to the ex- 



terior of a very fine church building completed 
the tower, the bell being blessed and placed in 
position in November of that year. The cost of 
the structure was $25,000. 

During the time this was a mission the follow- 
ing conducted services here: — Rev. T. O'Brien 
from Feb. 8, 1852, to October, 1852; Rev. Michael 
Gilbride, from October, 1852 until sometime dur- 
ing 1853; Rev. M. Walsh from November 18, 
1853, to October 29, 1854; Rev. M. Purcell, from 
October, 1854, to June, 1859. 

Rev. J. Constant was the first resident pastor 
of the church, coming here in June, 1859, and re- 
maining until October, 1864. Those who followed 
were: — Rev. James H. Leddy, to May, 1866; 
Rev. J. P. Fitz Patrick, to October, 1868; Rev. 
J. P. Stewart, to May, 1871; Rev. P. W. O'Con- 
nell, to August, 1877; Rev. M. Biggins, to April, 
1878; Rev. E. McGown, to October 18, 1886. 
Rev. J. J. Gleason, the present pastor, who has 
served the parish the longest of any, came Octo- 
ber 18, 1886. Father Gleason was born at East 
Bloomfield, Ontario county, N. Y., October 4, 
1857, and was educated at the Bloomfield acade- 
my, St. Andrews' Preparatory Seminary, Ro- 
chester, and St. Joseph's Seminary, Troy. In 
July, 1882. he was ordained at the cathedral in 
Rochester by Bishop McQuaid and was with St. 
Mary's parish, Rochester, until he came to Clyde. 

First Officers elected in Wayne county, May 
6, 1823, were: Sheriff, Thomas Armstrong of 
Wolcott; Clerk, Israel J. Richardson of Palmyra; 
Surrogate and "First" Judge, John S. Tallmadge 
of Sodus; District Attorney, Wm. H. Adams; 
Russell Whipple of Williamson, W. P. Capron of 
Macedon, Andrew G. Low of Palmyra and San- 
ford Sisson of Wolcott, coroners. They took the 
oath of office May 13, 1823. 

Constitutional delegates to the State Conven- 
tion of 1846: Ornon Archer and Horatio N. Taft. 




THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND RECTORY. 



'GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



43 




VANDENBERG CHAPTER. EASTERN STAR. 

Lower Row (left to right): Mrs. J. E. McGinnis, Mrs. Tallman. Mrs. Georgre Ware, Prof. Tallman, Mrs. R. E. Flynn. Top 
Row: D. L. Edwards, Mi^s Edra Roe. Mrs. Pimm, Mrs. G. J. Lauster, Mrs. J. L. De Ridder, Miss Lux, Louis Nichols, Mrs. 
Sarah Vandenberg;, Miss Lux, Miss Flossie Nichols, Miss Grace Barrett, J. J. Cooking-ham. 



The Clyde Creamery Co. was incorporated 

in the summer of 1894, and its business has since 
steadily increased until at the present time it is 
one of the largest institutions of the kind in this 
part of the state. The value of a creamery, with 
the facilities that this possesses, to the dairy- 
men of the surrounding country cannot be over- 
estimated. Dairies for miles away bring their 
milk to the several stations attached to this 
creamery and find a profitable and permanent 
market. The entire product of the Clyde Cream- 
ery is butter and during the past year over 200, - 
000 pounds were made here and shipped all over 
the country. To accomodate remote dairies the 
Company in 1898, established a receiving station 
at Angell's Corners, in April, 1899, one at Ma- 
rengo and in April, 1902, another at Hunt's Cor- 
ners. At these stations the milk is taken in and 



skimmed, the cream being sent to the factory in 
this village. Thus thousands of dollars are dis- 
tributed every year among the dairymen of this 
section, and what is of equal satisfaction the com- 
pany is composed of men whose homes and busi- 
ness interests are located in the town of Galen. 

The capital stock of the company is $5,000. 
The first president was Abram Weed and the 
first board of directors Abram Weed, F. L. Wal- 
dorf, Henry Kellogg, Philip Heit, C. G. Roy, J. 
W. Strang and F. S. Kelsey. The succeeding 
presidents were A. G. Graham, Edwin Sands and 
F. L. Waldorf. The present officers are:— Presi- 
dent, F. L. Waldorf; Sec, H. H. Benning; Treas., 
H. Kellogg; Executive Committee, E. B. Wells, 
H. F. Daboll and J. T. Babcock; Directors, F. 
L. Waldorf, E. B. Wells, H. Kellogg, H. F. Daboll, 
J. T. Babcock, H. H. Benning and F. A. Kelsey. 




THE CLYDE CREAMERY. 



44 



'GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



CLYDE FARMERS' EXCHANGE HAS INTERESTING HISTORY. 



Problem of Co-Operative Business was 

Solved in Four Years by Chartering 

to Buy, Sell and Manufacture. 

The Clyde Farmers' Exchange is a business 
organization with office, mill and storehouse on 
Main street between the canal and railroad. The 
Exchange deals in feed, seeds, general farm sup- 
plies and produce, fertilizers, coal and wood, 
machinery, etc. The situation of its wagon 
scales is such that a great share of the weighing 
by shippers and buyers passes over them. They 
are the official scales upon which all of the weigh- 
ing required by the Empire Beet Sugar Company 
and the Lyons Pickle factory is done. This place 
is the headquarters for farmers and farm enter- 
prises. 

The Clyde Farmers' Exchange was organized 
early in 1900 and incorporated under the laws of 
New York state, May 31, 1900. The stock capi- 
tal was $5,000 since increased to $10,000. The 



Roller Process Mill, Grain and Coal Eleva- 
tors and Store; Railroad and Canal 
Facilities; Owned by Grangers. 

In the fall of 1899 a set of rules and by-laws 
were presented by Charles L. Osborn, during a 
discussion, which made a definite beginning for 
an agreement upon a plan. But not until May 
5, 1900, was an organization effected and seven 
directors elected to begin operations. The char- 
ter which was then secured allows dealing in 
farm and general supplies, farm produce, lumber, 
real estate; also manufacturing, commission and 
agencies, etc. As the first office wasopened and 
the beginning was made by renting the "De 
Zeng coal yard" at the end of Main street canal 
bridge, east side of the street, the handling of 
coal and wood came very naturally into a main 
feature of the enterprise. In the early days 
Secretary C. L. Osborn was the business mana- 




THE CLYDE FARMERS' EXCHANGE. 



incorporators named in the charter are Charles 
L. Osborn, F. H. Closs and W. L. Devereaux 
who were intimately connected with the origin 
of the enterprise. This business association is 
really the outgrowth of Grange co-operation and 
it may be said here that the shareholders are 
members of the Clyde Grange. 

For many years there had been conducted in 
the Grange various partnerships and clubs for 
buying seeds and supplies and selling produce 
which were generally carried on with loose meth- 
ods and were of short duration, usually having 
no working capital and lacking every business 
feature of a permanent office and every day ser- 
vice. It was noted that these methods, as well 
as other pursued plans, were far behind those in 
operation in the Grange Co-Operative Fire Re- 
lief Association. Hence the sheer force of neces- 
sity brought the farmers to study the various 
plans of business co-operation in this country 
and Europe. Managers of successful concerns 
gave their advice and came and spoke upon their 
experiences in co-operative business. 



ger, but in October of 1900 Mr. George A. Burg- 
dor f was secured for the post of manager. He 
brought .to the concern many qualifications of a 
wide business experience, extensive acquaint- 
anceship, alertness and endurance, while he was 
also closely identified with the impulses and plan 
of the organization; and that he is popular in 
village and country was demonstrated by his 
election as town collector and by the position he 
has taken in the public activities in the village, 
and in the board of trade. 

The business of the Exchange from a very 
small beginning grew to require more room and 
better facilities, and the directors canvassed the 
project of securing a proper location. In Janu- 
ary, 1902, Mr. F. H. Closs, the president, nego- 
tiated the purchase of the Mclntyre malt house 
property, situated directly across the street from 
the old place, on the west side of Main street 
bridge. This, the property and location of the 
Exchange at the present time, has a frontage 
on Main street, in the heart of the business por- 
tion of the village, of 65 feet. On the canal it 
has a front for docks if desired of 150 feet, while 
on the south side of the property, which has a 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OP CLYDE. 



greater depth of 100 feet, it has a frontage on 
the N. Y. C. traeks of 125 feet with a switch to 
the main tracks. 

The large malt house, now converted into a 
storehouse, elevator and mill, is 100 feet long, 
50 feet wide and 40 feet high. It has four floors 
including a basement and the upper high-space 
floor which is occupied by fourteen bins, each 
with the capacity for 100 tons. The walls of the 
building are made of oak, iron and steel and the 
roof is of steel. The elevator, also of steel, put 
up in 1903, rises from the ground to the peak of 
the roof, some 45 feet. Taking the coal from 
beneath the railroad cars it carries it to the bins 
in the top of the building where the coal is let 
out into the delivery wagons through shutes. 
Part of the building- has been finished off into a 
first-class roller feed mill and a grain elevator. 
Adjoining is a brick building with a slate roof, 
25x50 feet, and 40 feet high, with kiln in the 



store building stands, which has been of no in- 
considerable benefit to the village, as it has 
greatly improved a central location on the maia 
street of the village, a place which first greets 
the eyes of people coming up from the trains. 

In early times a large creek, or cut-off from 
the Clyde river, passed through this lot. And it 
is affirmed by old residents that here, from the 
bridge that then crossed the creek on Main 
street, large dip nets were lowered and quanti- 
ties of fish were taken in the spring of the year. 
It may be added, that occupying the very place 
where the Exchange office now stands there once 
stood an historic landmark of Clyde— the Arcade 
building, a many doored and windowed tenement 
house, afterwards given over to a gun shop, 
cooper shop and storage house. [It may also be 
added that this building was once used by the 
village band for its headquarters, and nightly 
strains of music floated from its numerous pane- 




CLYDE GRANGE. NO. 



P. OF H. 



Standing (left to right): Mrs. George Sutherland. Mrs. Wm. Osborn, Mrs. Wm. La Rue, Mrs. Lynn Barton. Mrs. H. O. 
Ketchum. Mrs. Sarah Haugh, Mrs. Wm. Lawrence. Mrs. Richard Ketchum. Mrs. Wm. Reynolds, Mr. Lynn Barton, Mrs. F. S. 
Kelsey, Mrs. Frank A. Kelsey. Mrs. C. G. Roy. Mr. Joseph Barton, Mr. William La Rue. Mrs. Willard Devereaux. Miss Sarah 
Little. Mrs. Archibald Barton. Middle Row: Mr. William Osborn, Mr. C. G. Roy. Mr. Chester A. Baird, Mr. F. S. Kelsey. 
Mr. Archibald Barton. Mr. David A. Emeigh. Mrs. David A. Emeigh. Mr. Wallace H. Weed. Bottom Row: Mr. Valorus 
Ellenwood, Mr. Frank A Kelsey, Mr. Willard L. Devereaux. The child. Blanche Barton. 



basement and drying floors. Adjoining this is 
the brick engine and boiler house, having in it a 
twenty horse power equipment. Nearby are 
the horse stables and shed and a commodious 
blacksmith shop, all kept in good order and 
freshly painted. The lessee of the blacksmith 
shop is Mr. M. Guy, a capable blacksmith. Im- 
mediately after acquiring the property, in April, 
1902, the Exchange built an office and seed store 
on the Main street side, 40x25 feet, with two 
floors and a basement. The floor space of all the 
buildings is about 28,000 square feet. 

Inprovement of the Clyde Farmers' Exchange 
property has been continuous from its beginning, 
and not the least that has been done is the ex- 
tensive filling of the lots where the office and 



less windows. See farther account of this build- 
ing in Dr. Colvin's Reminiscences on page 4.] 
It was in this building, when Stephen Hull was 
the owner, in 1840, and Capt. Joseph Watson 
was president of the Galen Agricultural Society, 
that the first Galen fair was held. When Adras- 
tus Snedaker (see portraits of Watson on page 
34 and Snedaker on page 30) was master of 
Clyde Grange in 1876, he was owner of this Ar- 
cade lot, and at that time he urged the Grange 
to accept a liberal offer he made to co-operate in 
the erection of an Exchange and Grange hall 
there. 

The Clyde Farmers' Exchange has proven its 
firm establishment and gives daily evidence of 
being of great value to the village to which it in 



46 



'GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



fact draws trade that otherwise would go else- 
where. The enterprise is conducted with ability 
and wholly on business principles, and it is 
forging ahead. Much of its success is due to its 
president, Mr. Frank H. Closs. The Clyde 
Grange, reposing the same confidence in him, 
has elected him Worthy Master for 1905. The 
names of the stockholders who have served on 
the board of directors of the Exchange are 
Charles H. Roy, W. H. Osborn, F. H. Closs, C. 
L. Osborn, O. J. Anderson, W. H. Weed, W. L. 
Devereaux, D. Devoe, J. B. Davis and C. Allen. 

Clyde; From the Blockhouse to the Incorpor- 
ation of the Village; The Earliest Landowners 
and Surveys; Earliest Hotels; Construction of 
Dam and Bridges:— 

Clyde, earliest known as the Blockhouse (see 
"Blockhouse" in another column) was at first 
the rendezvous of squatters and Indian traders 
as it was the nearest point to Lake Ontario on 



In 1818 Maj. Frederick A. De Zeng constructed: 
a dam across the river, a saw mill on the north 
side and a grist mill on the south side. That 
year witnessed the erection of the first bridge 
across the river where the Glasgow street bridge 
now stands. The dam was located about fifty 
feet west of that bridge and had a lock in the 
south end to admit the passage of boats, the 
river then being legally designated navigable 
waters. The dam was authorized by an act of the 
Legislature, Feb. 17, 1817, which granted Maj. De 
Zeng absolute property right to the structure 
and water power. The dam was cleared away in 
1854 at the time the railroad came through. 

On April 10, 1824, Eli Frisbie and James Dick- 
son were appointed a commission to build a bridge 
to take the place of the old Sodus street bridge 
that had gone down in the spring of 1818, and 
the supervisor was empowered to raise $1,000 to 
defray the cost of the work, which was com- 
pleted that year. 

Dennis Vanderbilt, in 1814, erected a tavern 
on the south-west corner of Waterloo and Water 




PROTECTIVE HOSE CO. NO. 1. 

Lower Row (left to right): Newton Arnold, Wm. O'Brien. P. Doherty, C. Knight. Second Row: George Burgdorf, Albert 

Ware, Chief Hack, Compson, H. Knight. Top Row: C. Cleveland, F. Allen, P. J. Welch, T. Whalen, C. Barnes, 

Fisher, J. Mack. J. Minnie, P. J. Lauster, A. Beninghorf, J. Roy, W. Coffee, W. Ernst. 



Clyde river, then known as Canandaigua outlet 
(the principal route of travel in pioneer days^ 
towards the great west). In 1808 Jonathan Mel- 
vin erected a house on the south side of the river 
and in 1810 he was followed by James Dickson, 
James Humeston, Henry Archer, D. Southwick, 
E. Deane and Arza Lewis, who put up modest 
dwellings on the same side of the river. The 
site of the Melvin house is now occupied by the 
residence of N. P. Darling, on the northeast 
corner of Waterloo and Geneva streets. 

In 1809 a road was cut through between Wa- 
terloo and Sodus Bay crossing the river at Clyde 
on the bridge now known as Sodus street bridge, 
which was erected in 1810 and was carried away 
by the high water and ice in the spring of 1818. 
It was the first bridge erected over the Clyde at 
this place though after it had gone down it was 
not replaced until sometime after the Glasgow 
street bridge had been erected. On the south 
side of the river the Waterloo and Sodus Bay 
road is called Waterloo street and on the north 
side Sodus street. 



streets, now the site of Charles A. Skinner's 
residence; and the same year J. B. West opened 
a store in the same building — the first tavern 
and the first store in Clyde. Soon after, West 
and his brother Brewster erected a building op- 
posite the tavern for a store and dwelling. 

Sylvester Clark, in 1817, put up a store oppo- 
site Vanderbilt's tavern which he later moved 
farther south on Waterloo street near the north- 
west corner of Geneva street. This building 
was used for religious services, assemblies and 
school and lodge purposes for some years. It 
still stands, the residence of J. E. Cotton, the 
oldest residence in the village. 

Down near the river, now between the two river 
bridges, Jas. Humeston opened a tavern in which, 
a short time after, the first postoffice in Clyde 
was located, Humeston being the postmaster. 

Humeston's tavern was afterwards conducted 
by H. G. Kingsbury, who was followed by other 
landlords until in 1836 it was burned. Herman 
Jenkin's rebuilt a tavern on the same site in 
1837 and conducted it for some years. The hotel 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



47 



■was afterwards known as the Humphrey house 
and was torn down to make room for the West 
Shore railroad in 1884. 

Maj. Frederick A. De Zeng, in 1815, ordered the 
.survey of the south side of the river into village 
lots and streets, which was made by Valentine 
Brother the same year. On the north shore he 
built a saw mill on what is now the east end of 
the Central railroad station lot. He completed 
the mapping out of the settlement on the south 
side by running the surveyors' lines for Water- 
loo, Geneva and Water streets. Then it was 
.agreed that the settlement should be dignified 
by a name, and accordingly it was called Laura- 
ville, after Laura, the Countess of Bath, the 
daughter of Sir Wm. Pultenay, one of the large 
landowners of Wayne county about that time. 

In 1818 two Scotchmen came into the little 
community, and one of them went into ecstacies 
over the river scenery he found here. Andrew 
McNab— for that was his name — said that it 
ooked like his home on the river Clyde in Scot- 
and. The name sounded well and the settlers 
accepted the designation of the river as such. 



final completion and formal opening of the canal 
when the party went east on the first flotilla be- 
tween Buffalo and New York, in 1826. 

About the same time the Exchange hotel was 
put up on the east side of Lock street north of 
the canal and opened by a Mr. Garrett. This 
hotel, later called the Eagle, was afterwards 
converted into a planing mill and sometime 
along in 1850 was burned. Another planing mill 
was erected in its place which was burned eight 
or ten years ago. The first canal grocery to go 
up was that of Strong & Harrington's which 
stood opposite the hotel, west of where the 
American hotel was erected, on the west side of 
Lock street north of the canal. 

In 1823 Mr. Wm. S. De Zeng, the son of Maj. 
De Zeng, came over from Geneva and ordered 
the survey of village streets and lots, north of 
the river, which was made by James Gillispie in 
1823. Mr. De Zeng and his brother-in-law, James 
Rees, also from Geneva, opened a store on the 
north side of the river and started a mercantile 
business under the name of De Zeng & Rees. 
The former built a frame house on what is now 




EVERREADY CHEMICAL AND HOSE CO. NO. 2. 

Lower Row (left to right) Lewis Betts, James Sly. Dennis Sheehan, W. S. Nichols. Second Row: E. W. Cotton, Pres. 
F. M. Wood, foreman: John Hak, chief; Lester Hoffman, assistant foreman; Arthur Drury, secretary. Top Row: E. J. 
Farrow, George Rotatche, C. F. Cotton, John Van Antwerp, J. W. Garlic, E. R. Bockoven, treasurer; Wm. Simmons, Marcus 
Shafer, Jr., Howard Madden, Frank Wadley, George J. Lauster, Ernst De Golier, P. R. Cotton. Lewis Jefferson (colored), 
banner carrier; and Pickaninney Mascot. 

In 1822 the canal in course of construction was the south side of West Genesee near Scdus 

street, which is still standing, the first frame 
house erected on the north side of the river. It 
is now the residence of D. L. Stow, a grandson 
of Maj. Frederick De Zeng and a nephew of the 
builder of the house. 

Three years later, in 1826, Messrs. Robert 
Rose and Wm. S. Stow succeeded in getting the 
postoffice at this place named Clyde. 

Nine years later the village of Clyde was in- 
corporated the limits embracing both sides of the 
river. Thus was started the village of Clyde. 

The Clyde coffee house, as it was known, was 
erected at an early day and was burned in 1826, 
at the time Horatio C. Kingsbury was the pro- 
prietor. It stood on the present site of the Clyde 
hotel. The same year it burned Messrs. David, 
William and Benjamin Ford, who were among 
the earliest business men of Lock Berlin, erected 
the hotel building, two stories high, on the same 
site, which has since been the "hotel corner." 
P. G. Dennison built the north wing. 



opened to a point west of Lyons for navigation. 
Between Clyde and the Seneca river, however, 
the work was incomplete, but from Montezuma 
east and Clyde west the water was let into the 
canal and the two detached sections were used 
from that time to the completion of the canal, 
four years later. A narrow, wooden lock, a crude 
affair compared with those of to-day, was the 
eastern terminus of the Lyons section, located 
at the foot of Lock street. In 1822, a hotel 
called the Mansion house was put up between 
the canal and river at this lock. The site is now 
occupied by the malt house in which Mr. Top- 
ping does business. The Mansion house was 
first conducted by Fred Boogher. It was after- 
wards called the Franklin house, then the Sher- 
man house, and was known as the Delavan house 
when it was burned in November, 1885. It 
was on the steps of this hotel that Dominie 
Mosher delivered a congratulatory address to 
Gov. Clinton and his staff on the occasion of the 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 




EDWARD. B. WELLS' GRANITE WORKS. 



Edward B. Wells, for forty-five years one 
of the most active of the business men of Clyde, 
has been foremost in many business ventures in 
this village and is in the position to intelligently 
determine the value of a business proposition 
contemplating the establishment of local indus- 
try. Mr. Wells has also been prominent in the 
Republican party organization of the village and 
county, having held several of the important 
local offices. His connection with the Masonic 
order dates back to about 1859, during which 
year he was initiated into Humanity Lodge at 
Lyons. A few years later he joined the Clyde 
Lodge and has for some years been a member of 
the Chapter, having held several of the offices in 
each. 

Mr. Wells began business in Clyde in 1860 and 
is therefore the oldest active business man in 



the village. He was boi*n in Prattsburgh, Steu- 
ben county, N. Y., April 22, 1834. His childhood 
home was in the town of Lyons. His father 
located in the town of Sodus about 1820, and 
afterwards moved to Lyons. Mr. Wells received 
his education in the Lyons Union school. Ira 
Wells, his father, was of English descent and 
was a native of Cambridge, Washington county, 
N. Y., who became a business man of promi- 
nence in this county. Mrs. Ira Wells, who was 
born at Northampton, Mass., was descended 
from the Taylors, a well known Massachusetts 
family. 

Edward Wells at the age of eighteen years- 
went into W. W. Mead's marble shop at Lyons 
where he spent two years learning the trade of 
marble cutter. Going to Cherry Valley, Otsego 
county, he engaged in the business there a year 
and later moved to Fort Plain, Montgomery 




Shipler, Photo. 



THE W. C. T. U. 



Rower Row (left to right): Mrs. J. L. De Riclder, Mrs. George Bliss, Mrs. D. Winchell, Mrs. Benning. Mrs. Van Tassel. 
Top Row: Mrs. Tallman. Mrs. C. Winchell. Mrs. L. A. Powers, Miss Ryerson. Mrs. A. A. Traver, Mrs. V. N. Yergin, Mrs. 
Carrie German. 



'GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



49 




A. F. TERRY. 

county. Then he returned to Lyons for a time 
and in 1860, as before stated, came to Clyde. 
He erected a building next west of the postoffice 
where he carried on the monument business for 
twenty-five years. Then he erected the build- 
ing where he is now engaged in business and 
moving into his present quarters has continued 
the business there ever since. This business has 
been extended year after year and has grown to 
be the most important granite and marble works 
in the county. The patronage of Mr. Wells, as 
shown by reference to his books, include names 
of the many well known families not only in the 
several towns of this county but also in adjacent 



counties, including a considerable list in Roches- 
ter, Auburn and other cities. 

The life of Mr. Wells has been an active one. 
He bought the old Commercial bank building 
(now the postoffice) and practically reconstructed 
it, adding a new story and a new front and re- 
building throughout the interior He also erected 
the large brick dwelling on the south side of the 
river, opposite Glasgow street bridge, and has 
been engaged in many enterprises that were in- 
tended to open profitable channels of industry in 
this village. The big creamery which has not 
only proven a successful financial venture for 
those engaged in it but has been a valuable ad- 
junct to the industrial life of Clyde, was first 
brought to the attention of the agriculturalists 
of the town through the efforts of Mr. Wells, 
who is a director in the company. He owns con- 
siderable property in the town and is an active 
member of the Clyde Grange with which he has 
been connected several years. In 1866 Mr. Wells 
married Alice G. Gregory of Clyde and they 
have a pleasant home in this village, both being 
active in social and church matters. 

Mr. Wells, as has been stated, is one of the 
leading Republicans of the county. He has held 
several offices, including village trustee, two 
terms in the State Assembly, refusing the third 
nomination, two terms as postmaster of Clyde 
and one term as county clerk. Mr. Wells served 
as supervisor three terms. Twice he was elected 
and once he was appointed by the town board to 
fill the vacancy caused by the illness of E. W. 
Sherman who was incapacitated for attending to 
the duties of the office to which he had been 
elected. 

Alfred F. Terry came to Clyde in 1845 and 
was in business here for twenty years, a promi- 
nent man in the early period of Clyde and one of 
those progressive, enterprising citizens who in 
his time made Clyde one of the principal mercan- 
tile villages in Wayne County. He was born in 




ELECTRIC HOSE CO. NO. 3. 

Standing (left to right) : Charles F. Lux, Geo. H. Rodwell, Byron H. Perry, Francis C. Tuck, Adelbert Blood. James 
Farrington' John H. Lux, John Lee, Edward Myers, Wm. Rodwell, Fred Woehr. Sitting: Edward Goodell, Henry Redder, 
Fred Wiltsie, John Carroll, Charles Tuck, Le Roy Wilson, Mascotts: Earle Handlon and Maddon. 



50 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 




GEORGE H. HOYT. 

Patchogue, L. I. March 1, 1821. His first ven- 
ture in Clyde was to manufacture and sell har- 
ness, he being by trade a harness maker. At 
the same time he in company with Daniel Saxton 
engaged in the manufacture of lace for carriage 
trimmings which they carried oh in the building 
which now adjoins the bank. He was associated 
with Mr. Ketchum in the erection of Harmony 
Hall block. In 1865 Mr. Terry went west and 
engaged in trading with the Indians and was for 
eighteen years a contractor carrying freight to 
the Indian country. Later he returned to Clyde, 
and being taken with paralysis he died August 
11, 1896. His wife was Miss Esther Fairchilds 
of Onondaga county. Two of their five children 
are living, George D. of Binghamton and Fred- 
erick H. of Clyde, both being engaged in the 
drug business. 

George H. Hoyt was born in the town of 
Ripley, near Dexter, Me., Sept. 6, 1825. He 
was the son of George W. Hoyt, a native of 
Bradford, N. H. Mr. Hoyt was educated in the 
common schools of Bradford and at the Francis- 
town Academy. His parents died when he was 
three years of age and he journeyed through 
Maine into New Hampshire, a distance of two 
hundred and fifty miles, and resided with his 
grandfather on a farm until reaching his major- 
ity. In 1850 he went to Newark, Wayne County, 
N. Y., and in 1854 returned to Concord, N. H. 
That year he married Mary H. daughter of Jon- 
athan Scribner of Salisbury, N. H. Mrs. Hoyt 
died January 3, 1895. 

In 1857 Mr. Hoyt, with his wife, came to Clyde 
and engaged in the grocery business. From 
1858 to 1860 he had charge of the factory store. 
In February, 1861, he entered the employ of 
Wm. C. Ely at the Glass Works, being soon 
afterward appointed agent for Dr. Linus Ely in 
the same business. Orin Southwick succeeded 
Dr. Ely. In 1868 Mr. Hoyt became a partner in 
the firm of Southwick, Reed & Co. This firm 
was succeeded in turn by the firms of Ely, Reed 
& Co. and Ely, Son & Hoyt, the latter partner- 



ship continuing until the death of Wm. C. Ely 
in 1886. The firm was then organized under the 
name of Wm. C. Ely's Sons & Hoyt and contin- 
ued as such until the organization of Clyde Glass 
Works in 1895. Mr. Hoyt was a director and 
treasurer of this corporation up to the time of 
his death; he was also a director of the projected 
Pennsylvania & Sodus Bay railroad; and was one 
of the original stockholders of Poughkeepsie 
Glass Works and a director of that corporation 
until his health failed him. 

He was an active member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church. In 1860 he was elected stew- 
ard and in 1865 trustee of the church, holding 
the latter position for twenty-nine years until 
failing health compelled him to decline further- 
election. He was made Sunday-school Superin- 
tendent of that church the same year he came to 
Clyde and held the position eight years. He was 
also librarian of the Sunday-school for some 
time and arranged their present ingenious system 
of distributing books. 

Mr. Hoyt took an active interest in all enter- 
prises for the betterment of the village. He 
was a man of wonderful genial temperament 
and made friends readily wherever he went. 
His family consisted of Carolyn H. Green, Lillian 
H. Barnard and George H. Hoyt, Jr. Mr. Hoyt 
died May 14, 1899. 

Clyde Grange; One of the Most Prosperous 
and Progressive in the State:— Clyde Grange, 
No. 33, P. of H., was organized January 8, 1874. 
The first officers of the Grange were: — Master, 
Benjamin Weed; Overseer, Malcolm Little; Lec- 
turer, Adrastus Snedaker; Steward, Adelbert 
Gordon; Assistant Steward, W. H. Barnes; 
Chaplain, M. W. Jenkins; Treasurer, Seth 
Brown; Secretary, J. Wm. Strang; Gate Keeper, 
Anson C. Burnett; Pomona, Mariette Bowen; 
Ceres, Mrs. Anson C. Burnett; Flora, Sara A. 
Little; Lady Assistant Steward, Mrs. Seth 
Bowen; Executive Committee, A. Snedaker, 
Wm. Stewart and Henry Southard. 

The Clyde Grange began the formation of a 
library very early in its history and now owns 
the finest library of any grange in the state, 
over 1,700 volumes. Another early move was 
the co-operative buying, and the Farmers' Ex- 
change, described elsewhere in this work, is a 
direct outcome of this idea and gives great 
satisfaction. The Clyde Grange has a member- 
ship of over 300. It was one of the founders 
of the Fire Relief Association of Wayne Coun- 
ty, which on January 1, 1905, held risks on 
$6,487,291 and has never contested a claim. Mr. 
Wm. H. Osborne of the Clyde Grange is the 
treasurer of this association. Those who have 
been Masters of the Clyde Grange from the be- 
ginning are as follows: — Benjamin Weed; Mal- 
colm Little; Adrastus Snedaker; Abram Weed; 
George C. Watson; W. L. Devereaux; George 
Baird; Eugene Hickok; Wallace Weed; David 
Emigh; Valorus Ellinwood; Jerome Davis; Fred 
Kelsey; Frank H. Closs. Secretaries:— J. Wm. 
Strang; Abram Weed; Sara A. Little; Sylvester 
Clark; Harry Weed; Mrs. David Emigh. Ben- 
jamin Weed, the first Master, is still on the 
active roll of members. 

The First Marriage among the settlers in 
the town of Galen was the celebration of the 
nuptials of Jabez Reynolds and Polly Mills in 
1804. 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



51 



INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT OLDEST INDUSTRY IN CLYDE. 



Before the Village was Incorporated Glass 
was Made in Clyde 

In 1828 a glass factory was started in Clyde. 
It was built by De Zeng & Rees, a firm com- 
posed of William S. De Zeng and James R. Rees. 
The corner stone was laid on the 24th day of 
March 1828, with some ceremonies, under the 
superintendence of Maj. Frederick A. De Zeng. 
The master builders were Artimus Humeston, 
Ephraim Carrington and Henry Roberts. At 
that time the village contained a population of 
five hundred. The first factory was for the 
manufactm*e of window glass only. It was suc- 
cessively conducted by the firms of De Zeng & 
Rees; William S. De Zeng; Charles S. De Zeng; 
Dr. Hiram Mann; De Zeng & Co.; James H. 
Stokes; Stokes & Ely; James H. Stokes; Stevens 
& Miller; Stevens, Miller & Co.; Miller, Rowell 
& Co ; William C. Ely; Dr. Linus Ely; Orin 
Southwick. 

In 1864 a bottle factory was started, the first 
firm being Southwick & Wood, then Southwick 



From Clay Crucibles to Immense Tanks 
this Enterprise Has Grown. 

treasurer and continued in that office until his 
death in May 1899. He was succeeded by his 
son, George H. Hoyt, Jr., who has held that 
office since that time. It may be interesting to 
know that the elder Mr. Hoyt commenced tak- 
ing charge of the finances of the glass factory in 
1861 and that the financial management of this 
important business has been in the hands of him- 
self and his son for upwards of forty-four years. 

William C. Ely, who for more than thirty 
years had the largest interest in the business, 
was a man of remarkable business ability. He 
left his impress on all with whom he came in 
business contact and to him, perhaps more than to 
any other, the wonderful success of the business 
is due. It was under his management that the 
bottle department was added. 

Originally the material was melted in clay 
crucibles, called in the trade "pots." When the 
present corporation was organized a tank system 






THE CLYDE GLASS WORKS. 



& Reed, and then the two industries were com- 
bined under the firm name of Southwick, Reed 
& Co., and later by the firm of Ely, Reed & Co., 
a firm composed of William C. Ely, Charles W. 
Reed, John Schindler and George H. Hoyt. In 
1874 John Schindler died and the business was 
continued by the surviving members of the firm 
until 1880, when Mr. Reed retired from the firm 
and Mr. Charles D. Ely became a partner, the 
firm name being Ely, Son & Hoyt. This firm 
continued until 1886, when William C. Ely died 
and his son William D. Ely entered the firm and 
the firm name became Wm. C. Ely's Sons & 
Hoyt. This management continued until 1895, 
when Clyde Glass Works was organized for the 
manufacture of hollow glassware exclusively (the 
manufacture of window glass having been dis- 
continued). This concern is a corporation. Its 
first Board of Directors was Charles D. Ely, 
George H. Hoyt, George H. Hoyt, Jr., Gaylord 
R. Bacon, James R. Miller, William W. Legg 
and Frank H. Warren. 

Gaylord R. Bacon has been president since the 
organization. George H. Hoyt was the first 



was adopted, the fuel used being a product of 
petroleum called "fuel oil." In 1903 a continu- 
ous gas producer was installed and the present 
tank was built. At the same time a lehr for 
tempering the ware was installed. The capacity 
of the plant was greatly enlarged. When run at 
full capacity it gives employment to about 
eighty-five men, about forty-five boys and six 
girls. Its weekly pay-roll amounts to about one 
thousand dollars. Some of the blowers get as 
much as eight dollars per day. Here are manu- 
factured fruit jars and glass bottles of all sizes, 
from two ounce to Gallon Packers, all from the 
finest tank flint glass. 

The present Board of Directors is Gaylord R. 
Bacon, George H. Hoyt, George O. Baker, Wil- 
liam W. Legg, James R. Miller, Frank H. War- 
ren and William A. Hunt; Mr. Baker succeeding 
the elder Mr. Hoyt and Mr. Hunt sncceeding 
Mr. Charles D. Ely, who died May 31, 1903. The 
present officers are: Gaylord R. Bacon, Pres. 
and Superintendent; William W. Legg, Vice- 
Pres. ; George H. Hoyt, Treas. ; James R. Mill- 
er, Secretary. 



52 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 




G. D. BARRETT, M. D. 
Dr. George D. Barrett, one of the leading 
physicians of Clyde having a large and prosper- 
ous as well as a successful practice, was born at 
Hooksett, N. H., January 9, 1846. In his six- 
teenth, year, hav- 
ing succeeded well 
in his studies in 
the Nashua, N. H., 
school, Dr. Bar- 
rett accompanied 
his father in the 
campaigns of the 
latter, who was 
with the federal 
armies in the 
South, to the Gulf 
of Mexico. The 
stirring scenes of 
that great war left 
vivid impressions 
on the mind of the 
young man who 
was too young to 
enlist. His fath- 
er, Lieutenant- 
Colonel Wm. M. 
Barrett, saw ac- 
tive service in that 
war, during which 
he commanded the 
8th New Hamp- 
shire regiment at 
the battle of Port 
Hudson. Dr. Bar- 
rett next visited 
the Canadas and in 
1869, started on a 
long trip through 
the western states 
and territories, 
crossing the isth- 
mus of Panama and 
visiting Mexico. 
He then entered 



Dartmouth, N. H., Medical college where he re- 
ceived his degree, graduating in the class of 
1877. He spent a year in the hospitals and in 
practice at Boston, whence he removed to North 
Abington, Mass., and practiced there five years. 
In 1884 he came to Marengo, N. Y., where he 
practiced until October, 1893, when he located in 
Clyde. On May 16, 1878, he married Mary H., 
the daughter of Alfred Randall, by whom there 
were two children, Grace Marion, who lives at 
home, and George Carlton, deceased. Dr. Bar- 
rett, who enjoys toavel, in 1898 made a fifteen 
months' trip to Alaska for recreation. While 
practicing in Marengo in 1886, he joined Hu- 
manity Lodge of Masons at Lyons and in 1894 
joined the Clyde Lodge, in which he has served 
as junior and senior warden, this year taking 
the Master's chair. He is also a member of 
Griswold Chap., R. A. M., Zenobia Com. 41, 
K. T., of Palmyra and Damascus Shrine of Ro- 
chester, in which orders he has occupied most of 
the minor positions. In 1894 he joined the Clyde 
Lodge, I. O. O. F., and has passed through the 
successive chairs of that lodge and the Encamp- 
ment. He was elected Captain of Canton Galen 
No. 49, when that order was not in a flourishing 
condition. Receiving the proper support from 
an active membership he has succeeded in making 
it one of the best Cantons in the state for its 
numerical size. The doctor is Assistant Surgeon 
General on Gen. Stearnes' staff ranking as Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel. 

Considerable of the doctor's time is given to 




DR. G. D. BARRETT'S RESIDENCE. 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



53 




HENRY I. WOOD. 



SIDNEY W. WOOD. 



RAY G. WOOD 



his fraternity connections in which he is quite 
enthusiastic. He is also active in local politics, 
and is now serving as health officer of the village. 
He is a member of the Wayne County Medical 
Association, as he was of the society immedi- 
ately preceding it, and was a member of the 
Massachusetts Medical Society when he was 
practicing in that state. 

S, W, Wood Sc Son succeeded to the firm of 
S. W. Wood & Co. in October, 1886. It com- 
prises Sidney W. Wood and his son Henry I. 
Wood. 

Sidney W. Wood, George Chandler and Seth 
H. Wood rented the old foundry of Ambrose 
Field in 1866 and for the ensuing year carried 
on the business under the firm name of Wood, 
Chandler & Co. Then Mr. Chandler retired and 
the firm name was changed to S. W. Wood & 
Co. This co-partnership continued until the 



death of Seth H. Wood January 
18, 1886. The following October 
Henry I. Wood bought the in- 
terest of his uncle, Seth H. 
Wood, and the business has been 
conducted since then under the 
firm name of S. W. Wood & 
Son. 

Besides the general repairing 
which all machine shops did at 
the time this firm became the 
owners it then produced plows 
and cultivators which S. W. 
Wood & Co. for a time contin- 
ued to manufacture, although 
shaping their plans so as to 
gradually turn their main efforts 
to steam engines and boilers. 
Foreseeing that steam was fast 
superseding horse power for 
driving farm machinery this 
firm, the second in the state to 
manufacture portable engines, 
revolutionized the business of 
the old plant until finally they 
engaged wholly in the manufac- 
ture of steam engines and boil- 
ers. In 1898 Mr. Wood and his 
two sons, Henry I. and RayG., bought the prop- 
erty of the Ambrose Field estate and the follow- 
ing year erected new boiler and blacksmith shops 
and reconstructed the other buildings. Where 
there were three or four men working in the 
shop in 1866 the firm is now employing twenty- 
five or thirty men the year around ten hours a 

day. 

Mr. S. W. Wood was born in Kingston, Ulster 
county, N. Y., April 10, 1829. In 1830 his father, 
Israel Wood came to the town of Galen and 
bought the Jacob Heit farm two and a half miles 
east of Clyde. When he was twelve years old 
Mr. S. W. Wood began running the Nathan 
Stevens saw mill which he operated until he 
was seventeen years old. In that mill he cut 
out timbers used as "sleepers" in constructing 
the roadbed of the old Auburn railroad. At that 
time the railroad was built by spiking strap iron 
rails on to "sleepers." In 1846-7 Mr. Wood 




S. W. WOOD & SON'S MACHINE SHOP AND FOUNDRY. 



54 



'GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 




E. N. HUGH30N. 



MALISSA M. HUGHSON. 



was employed in the foundry of Deacon Taft at 
Lyons and in the latter year he went to Geneva 
where he learned the trade of machinist in the 
Seneca Lake Foundry, being employed there 
twenty years. Mr. Wood married Catharine 
Whitmore to whom were born three children, all 
of whom are living in Clyde, Messrs. Henry I. 
and Ray G. and Miss Ella Wood. Both sons 
learned the machinist's trade in their father's 
shop, Henry I., as has been stated, purchasing 
the interest of his father's brother at the time 
of the latter's death. Mr. Wood's present wife 
was Catharine Queeman, whom he married at 
Geneva in 1878. 

Mr. and Mrs- E. N. Hughson have been 
residents of the village of Clyde for nearly sixty 
years and are probably one of the oldest married 
couples who came to Clyde as many years ago. 
What is still more rare they have celebrated 



their sixtieth wedding anniversary— the "Jew- 
el Anniversary. " Mrs. (Malissa M. Dunwell) 
Hughson has been accorded some distinction 
in the press of western New York for her re- 
markable memory and as a Bible student. 
Having the exceptional gift of a clear, vig- 
orous mind, although in her eighty-seventh 
year, she is able to repeat word for word en- 
tire gospels out of the Scriptures, and can 
recite lengthy selections from all the standard 
poetry. What is remarkable is that in her 
advanced age the power of committing to 
memory remains undiminished, and she still 
commits lengthy passages as she always has 
done, being a great student, with apparent 
ease. She was born in the town of Lyons, 
in 1818 and is with an exception or two the 
oldest living inhabitant of the county. Her 
father, Captain Stephen Dunwell, Jr., was- 
a pensioner of the war of 1812 and her grand- 
father, Stephen Dunwell, Sr., served under 
Gen. Washington in the Revolutionary war. 
Her grandfather on her mother's side, Robert 
Purchase, lived to be 106 years old. Mrs. 
Hughson is an aunt of Supreme Court Judge 
Dunwell. 
E. N. Hughson was born in the town of North- 
East, Dutchess county, N. Y., October 5, 1821, 
his parents being natives of the state of New- 
York. When thirteen years old he began work- 
ing at the trade of a tin and coppersmith and 
has followed it ever since, being still actively 
engaged in that business although in his eighty- 
fifth year. He was eighteen years old when his- 
home was located in Red Creek, in this county. 
He afterwards resided in Newark two years. 
On December 18, 1844, he was married to Malissa 
M. Dunwell at East Newark, N. Y. They are 
the parents of seven daughters, all living: — 
Ellen (Mrs. A. H. Diamond) of Jeanette, Pa.; 
Caroline (Mrs. J. V. Worden) of Phelps, N. Y. ; 
Emma J. (the widow of Newton Blood) of Clyde; 
Ada (Mrs. A. H. Brown) of New York; Amelia 
(Mrs. Pflanz) of Utica, N. Y. ; Belle (Mrs. EL 
J. Zimmerman) of Milan, Mich. ; Nellie (Mrs. 
F. A. De Laney) of Clyde. 




Shipler, Photo. 



USHERS M. E. CHURCH. 



Lower Row (left to right): John Kellogfr, Arthur Moison, W. A. Hunt, B. N. Marriott. 
vey Waite, W. H. Hoffman, M. C. Shafer, Jr., Lester Hoffman. 



Upper Row: Har- 



'GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



55 




OFFICIAL BOARD, M. E. CHURCH. 

Lower Row (left to right): J. W Hinman, Asa Traver. L. H. Palmer, W. A. Hunt, Rev. P. H. Riegel. Upper Row: 
Arthur Moison, W. H. Garlic, Lester Hoffman, M. W. Mead. J. O. Welch, E. M. Ellenwood, Dr. J. L. Thorpe, J. J. Cooking- 
ham, John Kellogg, H. H. Benning, B. N. Marriott. 



Mr. Hughson came to Clyde about fifty-six 
years ago and for forty years worked at his trade 
in the same building, that now occupied by Mur- 
phy & McElligott. His employer the first six 
years was S. J. Sayles. About 1895 Mr. Hugh- 
son went into business for himself on Canal 
street, but a year ago last spring sold out. 
After a few months' retirement, unaccustomed 
to an inactive life, he again went into business, 
locating on North Park street where he is still 
doing business. Mr. Hughson was a Whig in 
politics from the time he was almost old enough 
to vote, as he says, for "Tippecanoe and Tyler 
too." Since the formation of the Republican 
party he has zealously supported its candidates. 
Mr. Hughson recalls interesting incidents of the 
early days in Clyde, when some of the village 
streets were bordered with rushes that com- 
monly spring up in watery wastes, and when 
periods of high water caused an overflow on 
Main street. His recreation for many years 
was hunting and fishing, and in one day he has 
bagged over thirty squirrels near Clyde. Mr. 



and Mrs. Hughson have nineteen grand-children 
and seventeen great-grand-children. 

Official Board and Ushers.— The First M. E. 
Church, an extended history of which is given 
on page twenty-six, is fortunately in the hands 
of an officiary composed of successful business 
men whose names are a guaranty of that judi- 
cious and progressive management which has 
made the society a financial success and has 
given it a large membei'ship; and at the same 
time is from a ministerial standpoint a desirable 
charge. 

The group of the officiary for 1905 is shown 
on page fifty-five. The portrait of one of the 
best known and one of the most zealous of the 
officiary for years past, the late George H. Hoyt, 
together with his personal history written by 
one of his contemporaries, appears on page fifty- 
one. His service of forty-one years, which 
closed with his death, is a luminous page in the 
history of the church. Another whose service 
is equally distinguished, with a record of forty 




THE WOMEN'S AUXILIARY SNEDAKER POST, G. A. R. 

Lower Row (left to right): Mrs. A. Wood, Mrs. J. Foote, Mrs. D. Allen, Mrs. Wm. Nichols. Mrs. D. Gib- 
son. Upper Row: Mrs. C. F. Britton, Mrs. Charles Groesbeck, , Mrs. Nichols, Mrs. J. Sager, 

Mrs. V. Kline, Mrs. A. Hutchins. 



■0i°"l 



56 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 




FOUNDERS AND OFFICERS BRIGGS' NATIONAL BANK. 

S. S. BRIGGS. Pres. Original Briggs Bank. 
L. H. PALMER. Pres. Briggs Nat. Bank since 1894. 

W. A. HUNT. V. Pres. Briggs Nat. Bank. 
S. H. BRIGGS. Pres. Briggs Nat Bank to 1894. 
J. W. HINMAN, Cashier Briggs Nat. Bank. 

E. B. Palmer, Ass. t Cashier Briggs Nat. Bank. 

years, is that of Mr. L. H. Palmer who is still 
"on post" as vigorous as ever. 

The subject should not be passed without 
mentioning the broad field of influence in this 
church, the out-of-town membership being so 
large that thirty-nine closed sheds are rented at 
profitable figures to those who drive to service. 

The Sunday school, for years the banner school 
of all denominations in the county and at pres- 
ent the largest of the Methodist schools, owes 
much to the able, unselfish and patriotic efforts 
of Mr. J. W. Hinman, its superintendent, who 
has occupied that position for thirty-three con- 
secutive years. 

The group of ushers of the Methodist church 
appears on page fifty-four. For their untiring 
and close application to duties requiring consid- 
erable personal sacrifice is due the gratitude of 
all who attend that church. 

The Briggs' National Bank is a successful 
institution with a capital of $50,000, managed 
according to the best rules of finance by men 
who assisted in founding it or who grew up with 
it. Other banks in Clyde have come and gone 
but this from its beginning has steadily grown 
in public favor and to-day does the banking bus- 
iness of a considerable extent of country, not to 
say the exclusive banking business of the village 
of Clyde. 

The Briggs Bank of Clyde, the germ from 



which the present in- 
stitution sprang, was 
incorporated in 1856 
with S. S. Briggs 
president, and Wm. 
H. Coffin cashier, and 
a capital of $70,000. 
In 1859 S. S. Briggs. 
became the sole owner 
and in 1860 Aaron Gris- 
wold bought one-half 
of the interest. On 
the death of S. S. 
Briggs, in 1865, S. H. 
Briggs bought out Mr. 
Griswold and sold a 
part interest to L. H. 
Palmer, and until 1880 
the business was con- 
ducted under the name 
of Briggs & Palmer, 
Bankers. 

In March, 1880, the 
Briggs National Bank, 
the present institution, 
was organized with a 
capital of $50,000 and 
the following officers: 
— S. H. Briggs, presi- 
dent; L. H. Palmer, 
vice-president; J. W. 
Hinman, cashier. S. 
H. Briggs died in 1894 
and L. H. Palmer suc- 
ceeded as president. 
W. A. Hunt was made 
vice-president, J. W. 
Hinman cashier, and 
E. B. Palmer assistant 
cashier; all of whom 
occupy the same posi- 
tions at the present, 
time. 
Samuel Stevens Briggs was born in Chatham, 
Columbia Co. N. Y., April 17, 1803. In 1835 he 
came to Clyde, N. Y., and purchased two hun- 
dred acres of land in the town of Galen. In a 
few years he added to his farm three hundred 
acres more and became one of the most promi- 
nent farmers in the county. His natural apti- 
tude for business soon caused him to take up 
other lines of industry. In 1856 he established 
the Briggs Bank of Clyde, associating others 
with him, though he kept a controlling interest 
and was its president till his death. In the great 
financial crisis of 1857, when nearly all banks 
suspended specie payment, he refused, saying, 
"My bank shall not suspend if all others do." 
The leading characteristics of Mr. Briggs were 
his punctuality in all business relations and pro- 
bity, regarding his word equal to his note. He 
was identified in all the interests of the town 
and built several of its valuable blocks. Mr. 
Briggs was of a kind heart and of a liberal spirit 
to worthy causes. He died on September 3d, 
1865, leaving his banking interests to his son, 
S. H. Briggs. 

Samuel Hunt Briggs, the son of S. S. Briggs, 
was born in Galen September 16, 1843. At an 
early age he entered his father's bank as assist- 
ant bookkeeper. Possessing the business ability, 
it was not long before he. was promoted to the 
position of cashier. In 1865, on the death of his 
father, he with L. H. Palmer as partner contin- 
ued the business as Briggs & Palmer, Bankers' 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



57 



until 1880, when it was reorganized as the Briggs 
National Bank with Mr. Briggs as president, he 
retaining that position until his death. The suc- 
cess which attended the business over which he 
presided was largely due to his keen sagacity 
and wise judgment. For many years he was a 
trustee and consistent member of the Clyde 
Presbyterian church, and gave liberally towards 
its support. In September, 1867, he married 
Julia P. Hendrick, daughter of Dr. A. T. Hendrick 
of Clyde. Five children were born to them, four 
of whom with their mother survive him, Fred- 
erick H. and Mrs. Gurnsey Wheeler of New 
York, and Flora and Francis Briggs who reside 
with their mother in Rochester. In 1882 he 
moved to Rochester and built a house on East 
Ave., where he died in August, 1894. 

Lewis Herrick Palmer was born in Nassau, 
Rensselaer Co., N. Y., on January 31, 1835. 
His parents moved to the town of Lyons in 1844. 
He received his education at Lyons Union School 
and at Lima Seminary, after which he entered 
into the employment of Dr. L. R. Herrick & Co. 
of Albany, N. Y., remaining with them till 1861. 
In 1865 he came to Clyde and in company with 
Mr. S. H. Briggs established the Briggs 
& Palmer Bank, which continued up to 
1880. At this time the bank was reor- 
ganized and known as the Briggs Na- 
tional Bank of Clyde, with which insti- 
tution Mr. Palmer has been connected as 
its vice-president and since 1894 as its 
president. He has always been active 
in the business, moral and religious in- 
terests of the community— for many 
years a prominent member of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal church of Clyde, now a 
leader among its officiary and for thirty- 
eight years a member of the board of its 
trustees. In 1861 Mr. Palmer married 
Louisa M. Briggs, the youngest daughter 
of S. S. Briggs of Clyde, N. Y., and they 
are the parents of six children, Mrs. 
Olin Miller of Brooklyn, N. Y., Edwin 
B. of Clyde, Dr. Lewis R. of Baltimore, 
Briggs S. of Boston and May L. and 
Anna R. of Clyde. 

Edwin Briggs Palmer was born at 
Clyde, N. Y., June 12, 1866. He re- 
ceived his early education at Clyde High 
school and was graduated from Cazeno- 
via Seminary and Eastman Business Col- 
lege at Poughkeepsie, N. Y. In 1887 he 
entered the Briggs National Bank as 
book-keeper and is considered one of the 
most accurate of accountants, now filling 
the position of Assistant Cashier. His 
popularity in the community is evidenced 
by his election as Treasurer of the vil- 
lage for six successive years, being chosen 
as the candidate by both Democratic and 
Republican parties. He also has served 
a term of three years as a member of 
the Board of Education of the Clyde 
High school. He has been for some years 
a prominent member of the Presbyterian 
church and at present fills the office of 
trustee. In 1892 he married Sadie Sybil- 
lah Lane of Lyons, N. Y., and they are 
the _ parents of one daughter, Janet 
Louise Palmer. 



William Alonzo Hunt was born in Galen Jan. 
21, 1856, and received his education at Lyons 
Union school and Cazenovia Seminary. In 1880 
he entered the Briggs National Bank, Clyde, as 
Assistant Cashier. Being untiring in applica- 
tion to his duties and efficient in the affairs of 
the Bank, he was elected Vice-President in 1898, 
succeeding his father, W. S. Hunt, who had held 
this office since the death of S. H. Briggs. Mr. 
Hunt takes great interest in everything that 
tends to the general welfare and interest of the 
community. He is an active member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church, Clyde, and one of 
its official members, filling the office of record- 
ing steward since 1883. He has been librarian 
of the Sunday school for twenty years. At pres- 
ent he is President of the Clyde Board of Trade. 
In 1882 he married Jennie Olin Palmer of New- 
ark and they are the parents of three children, 
Lester Palmer, Olin Martha, and Susan Briggs 
Hunt. 

J. W. Hinman was born in the town of Phelps, 
Ontario county, October 23, 1844. His father, 
Willis Hinman, was a native of Hartford, Conn., 
and removed to Ontario county in 1840, where he 




; , 





THE BRIGGS NATIONAL BANK. 



58 



'GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 




CHARLES E. ZELUFF. 

lived until his death in 1896. The subject of this 
sketch was educated in the Newark High school 
and Academy and later attended the Eastman 
Business College, graduating from that institu- 
tion in 1865. He came to Clyde in January 1867 
and entered the [employ of Briggs & Palmer, 
Bankers, as bookkeeper. He was later appoint- 
ed assistant cashier and at the organization of 
the Briggs Na- 
tional Bank in 
1880 was appoint- 
ed cashier which 
positi on he __still 
holds. In the 
month of June, 
1874, he married 
Miss Ida E. Field, 
daughter of the 
late Ambrose S. 
Field, and they 
are the parents of 
three sons, Willis 
A., Arthur F. and 
Harold C. Mr. 
Hinman is inter- 
ested in the ad- 
vancement of his 
town and has al- 
ways been inter- 
ested in church 
work having held 
the position of 
Sunday School 
Superintendent in 
the Methodist 
Episcopal church 
since 1872. 

First Show in 
Clyde to be li- 
censed was that of 
Noel E. Waring's 
exhibited June 24, 
1836. 



Charles E. Zeluff is one of the few men 

still living in Clyde who was engaged in business 
in this village nearly fifty years ago. During 
the six best years of business on the Erie canal 
Capt. Zeluff owned and operated a boat carrying 
merchandise and grain or whatever cargoes were 
offered, between New York and Buffalo. At 
that time there were 5,000 boats plying on the 
canal and freights on grain carried from Buffalo 
to New York ranged as high as 24 cents a bushel. 
Out of this the boat owner paid 6 X 4 cents a bush- 
el tolls. To-day there are about 600 boats on 
this canal and freight on grain is only from 2}4 
to 5 cents a bushel. Mr. Zeluff was born at 
North Wolcott, N. Y., Sept. 16, 1841, and when 
he was six years old his people moved to Clyde. 
Here his father, Benjamin Zeluff, went into the 
meat business on Canal street, and in 1858 Mr. 
Zeluff engaged with his father and remained with 
him five years. In 1866 he paid for the construc- 
tion of a canal boat which, as has been stated, 
he operated, following that occupation and rea- 
lizing from it considerable profit, until 1872. On 
April 12, 1870, he married Mary E. VanSlyck. 
Their only child is Czar Emmons Zeluff, a dentist 
in this village. Retiring from the canal freight- 
ing business, Mr. Zeluff opened a meat market 
on Canal street, where he carried on trade until 
1897. Since then he has been out of business, 
devoting his time to the management of his farm. 
Except while boating Mr. Zeluff has maintained 
an uninterrupted residence in Clyde. 

The Clyde High School, one of the best of 
the schools in the villages of the State, compris- 
es nine grades and an academic department, to- 
gether with a training class which has received 




MRS. SUSAN HUNT'S RESIDENCE. 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



59 




THE BOARD OF EDUCATION. 



FRANK H. WARREN. 



GEORGE H. HOYT. 



high commendations from the State department 
of Public Instruction. Since the training class 
was permanently located in the Clyde school and 
during the two succeeding years forty-five grad- 
uates were sent out from this class and their 
work in this and other counties in the State re- 
flected high credit on the school. The Clyde 
High School alumni comprises men and women 
scattered all over the country and engaged in 
many of the best professions, trades and mer- 
cantile pursuits. The courses of study in this 
school are so arranged that its graduates can 
matriculate without conditions in the best uni- 
versities. The library which was started some 
years ago now has over 2,600 volumes and is ful- 
ly adequate to the need of the times. The la- 
boratory is complete in all respects and for the 
past several years over one-half the credits in 
the examinations in physical science are based 
on the work in this laboratory. 

Old School Building. 

The Clyde High School is one of the oldest of 
the high schools in Western New York, it hav- 
ing been incorporated April 4, 1834, by the con- 
solidation of districts Nos. 14 and 17 of the town 
of Galen. The first trustees were Wm. S. Stow, 
John Condit, George Burrill, Isaac Lewis, Syl- 
vester Clark and Calvin D. Tomkins. Then 
school district 14 was located on the south side 
of the river. As the village grew in population 
the district was found to be too cumbersome and 
on April 12, 1842, it was divided, the south side 
of the river being set apart for a common grad- 
ed school. The first school building on the site 
of the present fine edifice was a small two-story 
wooden building which stood on the east half of 
the lot. When a new structure was erected it 
was used as a woodshed, but was burned down 
in 1851 or '52, at the time fire destroyed Gen. 
Stokes' and Dr. Childs' barns. 

The new building that was erected the year 
the school was incorporated was a two-story 
structure with a high basement. In 1855 anoth- 
er structure was put up which now comprises 
the eastern portion, or wing, of the present 
school. In 1874 the district acquired a lot west 



of the the old school lot and erected 
the third structure which now con- 
stitutes the main portion of the pres- 
ent building. The corner stone was 
laid July 7, 1874, with Masonic cer- 
emonies and the school was opened 
in it that fall. The cost of the new 
edifice was $30,000. 

Log Schoolhouse. 
The earliest school in Clyde was a 
log school-house which stood on one 
end of Sylvester Clark's lot on the 
south side of the river. The first 
teacher was Wm. McLouth. In 
1827 Clyde and Lock Berlin were 
united in one school district. Then 
for a few years the school was again 
held on the south side of the river. 

Prof. Wm. H. Scram was the first 
principal in the Clyde High School 
and Miss Abigail Packard the first 
preceptress- They were assisted by 
three teachers. Prof. Scram after- 
wards conducted a private school 
near Albany. Among other promi- 
nent professors who have presided 
over the destinies of the Clyde High 
school were Josiah T. Wescott, J. 
Homer French, a prominent instructor who was 
one of the editors of Adams' arithmetic, Col. 
Wm. Kreutzer, Col. Chas. Redfield and Wm. H. 
Lyon who during his time in Clyde invented a 
telegraph apparatus and who was subsequently a 
merchant in New York City. The later instruc- 
tors have included such men as Prof. Henry R. 
Sanford, H. R. Jolly, Dr. Edward Hayward, a! 
B. Bishop and C. E. Allen. Prof. Sanford is 'now 
State Conductor of Institutes. From about 1882 
when Dr. Hayward came here the school began 
that advance in merit which it has ever since 



J. T. KELLOGG 



kept up. 



THE FACULTY, 1905. 



The present faculty consists of Prof. H. N. 
Tolman, principal; Miss Luella B. Robinson^ 
preceptress; Miss Lila J. Shoemaker, Latin and 
Greek; Miss Helen L. Syron, Science and Lan- 
guages; Miss Laura D. Taylor, Mathematics 
and Languages; Miss Grace *M. Ford, training- 
class; Miss Flora Millard, ninth grade; Miss 
Agnes Stow, eighth grade; Miss Anna B. Scher- 
merhorn, seventh grade; Miss Alice E. Weeks, 
sixth grade; Miss Rose E. Noon, fifth grade; 
Mrs. Mary E. Ackerman, fourth grade; Miss 
Catharine Moran, third grade; Miss Grace E. 
Miller, second grade; Miss Adelia J. Lape, first 
grade; Miss Marielle R. Wood, elocution and 
music. 

The Board of Education consists of George H. 
Hoyt, president; Frank H. Warren, vice-presi- 
dent; J. T. Kellogg, secretary and treasurer; C. 
F. Lux, clerk. 

Philomathean — At a meeting of young men 
of the High School held the last week of Janu- 
ary, 1904, J. Clifford Cookingham was elected 
president of the projected literary society with 
power to appoint a committee to draw up the 
constitution. On February 10th the constitution 
was adopted and the remaining officers elected. 

The society was formed with an active mem- 
bership of eleven. The Faculty and Board of 
Education were made honorary members. Dur- 
ing the year 1904 three members were' added, 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



61 



making the number of active members fourteen 
at the close of the school year, viz:— J. Clifford 
Cookingham, Ezra S. Heit, Arthur W. Yergin, 
Benj. F. Van Hoesen, Howard L. Barcliff, N. 
Norris Barcliff, Curtis B. Barnes, George A. 
Mack, E. Bruce Hallett, Merton I. Roy, Vere- 
don W. Upham, Ralph R. Brown, Roy A. Van- 
dermeulin and Burton H. Jeffers. The second 
week in September of same year, meetings 
were again commenced and since that time four 
new members have been added, Geo. Butts, 
Chas. Perkins, Grover Deady and Eben Munson. 
The society aimed to train its members in de- 
bate and the art of extemporaneous speaking. 
In this it has been highly successful. During 
the first year debates were held with great fre- 



quency and the subjects, and the way in which 
they were treated, reflected great credit upon 
the participants and the society. During the 
past year the meetings were largely devoted to 
discussing and reading papers on Russia, Japan, 
and other timely subjects. These programs, of 
course, being interspersed with debates. 

In speaking extemporaneously the members 
have greatly improved. When the society was 
first organized some of the members could hardly 
utter four consecutive sentences from the plat- 
form, while now they can speak at length and 
fluently on subjects which come up in the meet- 
ings. The society has helped widen the scope 
of the High School course and added much to its 
attractiveness. 



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62 



'GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 




W. N. FIELD. 



A. S. FIELD. 



CHARLES W. FIELD 



Ambrose S. Field was for many years one 
of the most prominent business men of Clyde, a 
considerable property owner and a man whose 
interest in public affairs prompted him to give a 
great deal of his time to matters concerning the 
welfare of the community. His father, Daniel, 
came to Phelps, Ontario county, from the town 
of Conway, Mass., at the beginning of the last 
century, and about 1812 moved to the town of 
Galen, locating on a farm now owned by Mrs. 
Charles Mead. Ambrose was born in Clyde 
July 27, 1815. After completing a common 
school education 
he, in 1840, having 
learned the trade 
of carpenter and 
joiner, started in 
the furniture busi- 
ness in South Park 
street and after- 
wards he bought 
a site on Ford St., 
and erected a shop. 
This business in- 
cluded the manu- 
facture of furni- 
ture of all sorts, 
as well as perform- 
ing the duties of 
an undertaker. 
He also became 
interested in a 
wood turning plant 
and a chair and 
bedstead manu- 
factory. In 1854 
he purchased the 
northeast corner 
of Glasgow and 
East Genesee 
streets which the 
following year was 
swept clean by 
fire. He erected 
the building which 



now stands there and carried on his 
furniture and undertaking business 
in it until he bought the old Munn 
place to the north and in 1873 occu- 
pied it, carrying on business in both 
places for a year. In 1883, after 
the business had passed into the 
hands of his son, W. N. Field, he 
engaged in the clothing trade in the 
corner store and continued it up to 
the time of his death. Mr. Field 
occupied several public positions in- 
cluding President of the village and 
member of the school board, and 
overseer of the poor several years. 
When he was twenty-eight years of 
age he married Rachaelthe daughter 
of Gilbert Fisher, and to them were 
born seven children, three of whom 
are now living: Mrs J. W. Hinman, 
W. N. Field and George A. Field. 
Mr. Field died April 15, 1896, and 
the following November his daugh- 
ter, Mrs. Charles T. Saxton died. 

Willard N. Field, the President 
of the village of Clyde, a position 
he creditably filled one term and 
is now occupying the second time, was born 
in Clyde July 14, 1848. He attended the Clyde 
school and when eighteen years old entered the 
employ of his father, Ambrose Field, where he 
learned cabinet making and obtained the neces- 
sary qualifications to carry on the furniture and 
undertaking business. In 1873 he entered into 
partnership with his father, the firm being A. S. 
Field & Son until 1883 when Mr. W. N. Field 
bought the entire business and has since carried 
it on alone successfully. Mr. Field, adopting 
new requirements and methods, enlarged his 




W. N. FIELD'S RESIDENCE. 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



63 



place of business by putting- on a third story and 
a new front and otherwise increasing the capa- 
city of his quarters. His is now one of the 
largest furniture stores in the county. On Sept. 
7, 1871, Mr. Field married Lucy A. Forte of Caz- 
enovia. They have three daughters, Edna May 
(Mrs. L. B. Smith), Lucy A. (Mrs. E. Blauvelt) 
of Brooklyn, and Winifred who lives at home. 
Their one son, Charles W. Field, died Nov. 13, 
1904. Mr. Field has been a member of the Board 
of Education of Clyde several years. He is a 
charter member of the Protective Hose company 
and was its treasurer several years. Mr. Field 
belongs to the Clyde Lodge, No. 341, F. & A. M., 
Griswold Chapter R. A. M., and Zenobia com- 
mandery. He has served as Master of the subor- 
dinate lodge four years. 

Charles Willard Field, a lawyer of promise, 
the son of W. N. and Lucy A. Field, was stricken 
with illness in his thirty-third year and died 
shortly afterwards, Nov. 13, 1904, leaving a 
widow. He was married Dec. 27, 1899, to Miss 
Jane Moriarity of Clyde. The best history of 
him is embodied in the following resolutions 
adopted by the Wayne Co. Bar 
Association: "Mr. Field was 
one of the youngest members of 
the bar of the county but he had 
made great progress in the prac- 
tice of his profession and his 
career gave great promise of 
future usefulness. Born in 
Clyde thirty-two years ago 
[May 30, 1872] Mr. Field was 
graduated from the Clyde High 
School at the age of sixteen 
and he had barely attained his 
majority when graduated from 
Union College with the class 
of '93. At that time he had pre- 
pared himself to follow the pro- 
fession of civil engineering and 
for a year and a half after leav- 
ing college he was employed as 
a surveyor on the staff of the 
State Engineer. Impaired eye- 
sight made it obligatory upon 
him to relinquish this vocation 
and returning to Clyde, he be- 
gan the study of law in the office 
of his uncle, the late Charles T. 
Saxton. He was admitted to 
the bar in 1897 and from that 
time up to the time of his death 
practiced law with ever increas- 
ing success. 

"For a man of his years Mr. 
Field exerted great influence in 
both the political and business 
affairs of his town. In politics 
a Democrat, living in a strongly 
Republican town, his personal 
popularity and standing were 
such that he was twice elected 
to office, being chosen town 
clerk in 1898 and police justice 
in 1903. He possessed consid- 
erable ability as a campaign 
speaker and during the cam- 
paign just closed [Presidential 
election of 1904] attracted a 
great deal of attention bv his 
work on the stump. His influ- 



ence in business affairs was directed toward the 
development of his home town, exhibited most 
strikingly in advocacy of the Clyde and Sodus 
Bay trolley road. 

"In general intellectual attainments Mr. Field 
was ramarkably versatile. He was well in- 
formed in the science of engineering, a profound 
and intelligent student of the law, well posted 
and deeply interested in questions of current 
public interest, an extensive reader of good lit- 
erature. His trend of thought was broad and 
liberal. 

"His personal character was devoid of guile 
and pretense. He was on the other hand frank 
and open in action and utterance. His manner 
was hearty and agreeable; he was companiona- 
ble and a most engaging conversationalist. He 
possessed much personal magnetism, was open 
handed genial and generous. No one had a wider 
acquaintance in his home town and no one num- 
bered in his ran^e of acquaintance a greater 
ratio of warm personal friends." 








W. N. FIELD, FURNITURE AND UNDERTAKING. 



64 



-GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



iODUS BAY TROLLEY ROAD. 

The business men of Clyde have with proper 
energy and regard to the future mercantile ad- 
vancement of the village taken positive action 
for the construction of a trolley road between 
Clyde and Sodus Bay. 

A considerable extent of farming country will 
be favored with an easy method of coming to 
Clyde to do its trading. 

The trolley between Syracuse and Rochester 
now being constructed, which passes through 
Clyde will connect with the Clyde and Sodus Bay 
trolley at Clyde and will open a direct means for 
getting from those cities to Sodus Bay of which 
there is no better summer resort on the south 
shore of Lake Ontario. 

The Clyde and Sodus Bay trolley will in fact 
be the only direct rail line from Central New 
York to the Bay. It will be a popular route for 
large excursions from Syracuse and Rochester 
and intermediate points, will supplant the slow 
going stage that now connects the thriving vil- 
lages of Rose and North Rose with Clyde and 
will, in fact, be a great lever for giving Clyde a 
new growth. 

THE BURNING OF SODUS. 



Striking Event in the Early History- 
Incident of War of 1812. 

On June 20, 1812, President Madison declared 
war against Great Britain and the armed fleets 
of the Crown quickly appeared on the great 
American lakes to make war on the seaboard of 
the young republic and support an invasion. 
Sodus Point was then considered a place of some 
importance. The wide and deep roadstead of the 
village offered special advantage for the landing 
of a British force. So the Government forwarded 
stores to Sodus for the supply of American armies 
and in 1813 when the hostile fleet began to be fre- 
quently seen over the watery waste to the north a 
company of militia under Capt. Enoch Morse was 
sent to Sodus to guard against surprise. The 
government had not provided any coast defences 
and had no time to do so. But there were hun- 
dreds of barrels of flour, pork and bread which 
for weeks all of the teams that could be obtained 
in this locality had been employed in drawing 
over to Sodus. The barrels were rolled into a 
ravine and corded up and night and day were 
under guard. 

ENEMY ARRIVE AT SODUS. 

On June 12, 1813, a thrilling event took place 
at Sodus. Early in the day a number of sail 
hove into sight and bore down to the entrance 
of the bay. It was plain that the long looked 
for landing of the enemy was imminent. The 
settlers at hand gathered on the hills and 
watched the manouvreing of the flotilla in its 
movement toward the bay. That same morning 
the company of militia had been withdrawn from 
the bay, leaving a small guard over the stores. 
The alarmed settlers at once organized to meet 
the emergency, having first sent a rider south 
across the country to spread the alarm, and then 
placed themselves on guard down in the ravine 
with sentinels posted upon the hill to report the 



movement of the fleet. The ravine where the 
stores were hidden lay between what are now 
West and Ontario streets. 

COURIER ALARMS THE COUNTRY. 

On that beautiful day in June another "Paul 
Revere" went galloping across the hills and 
dales of a thinly settled tract of country— now 
the fertile soil of Wayne county. His course 
was headed for Lyons where he found Captain 
Elias Hull who immediately marshalled his local 
troop and started for Sodus. Then the rider, 
following the Montezuma turnpike, proceeded 
east arousing the country side. The next day 
was Sunday. Over in Junius good Captain Lu- 
ther Redfield hearing the news that Sodus was. 
burning left church in the midst of service and 
calling his men together started north to aid in 
repelling the expected invasion. 

Through the long Saturday on which the alarm 
was given the few settlers did all that they could 
to prepare for defence. They selected for their 
leader Elder Seba Norton and as the day wore 
along they worked themselves into a grim de- 
termination to fight. At dusk the small boats 
from the fleet were seen approaching the land- 
ing. Before any number of the enemy had ar- 
rived on the ground darkness had settled upon 
land and water. 

GALLANT MEN GATHER TO DEFEND. 

Norton marshalled his small band in the bushes 
that then grew in the midst of the public square 
and awaited the approach of the red coats who 
were marching up from the landing. At the 
same time the Lyons company was close at 
hand, coming into the village from the south 
having hurriedly marched in. Help was badly 
needed if the stores were to be saved and Nor- 
ton and his brave men, who no doubt would have 
fought alone if they had had to, gladly placed 
themselves under the command of Captain Hull. 

FIGHT IN TORCH LIGHT. 

Two scouts, Pease and Gibbs, who had been 
sent out to reconnoitre, returned with the intel- 
ligence that the British were coming up on the 
other side of the hill in full force, although it 
was only a small company. Then followed the 
appearance of torches and a batallion of regular 
soldiery appeared on the crest of the hill greeted 
by a fusilade of shots from the bushes. The 
American militiamen, who had dared to fire up- 
on more than their number of the Kings' trained 
soldiers supported by a fleet with heavy guns, 
drew back in the darkness into the ravine and 
took position behind a breastwork of barrels 
loaded with stores. The light of the torches 
borne by the approaching troops must have given 
their commander a glimpse of what appeared to 
hm as a large battery, for his men fired one volley 
then wheeling about deliberately marched back 
toward the landing. The heads of the barrels 
showing in the dim, flickering light of the torches 
had deceived the commander of the invading 
forces. Down in the village the torches were 
applied to the buildings as the boats put off from 
the shore. The next day other landing parties 
applied the torch, it evidently being the deter- 
mination of the British commander to punish the 
settlers without moving his men farther into the 
interior. Settlers armed and unarmed, and mili- 
tia companies, were marching on the town and 
although there were 90 craft of all sorts off the 
bay no attack on the village was made with the 
heavy guns of the fleet. 

GALEN MILITIA ARRIVE. 

All day Sunday flames rolled up from the sev- 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



65 



eral houses in the village, the enemy in the mean- 
time removing the stores that had been left in 
the warehouse at the landing, setting fire to the 
building and then putting back to the fleet, tak- 
ing with them two prisoners, Messrs. Britton 
and Harvey who were captured in a skirmish 
that took place that day at the landing. The 
next morning, Monday not a sail was in sight. 
The vessels had retired during the night, but 
streams of smoke were pouring up from all 
points in the ruins of the village. Such was the 
sight that Monday morning which met the gaze 
of Captain Redfield's men coming into town after 
an all night's march from the south end of 
Junius in a drizzling rain. 

NAMES OF DEFENDERS. 

The casualties to the Americans were compar- 
atively few. Chester Eldridge died from wounds 
he received; Messrs. Terry and Knight were 
slightly wounded. All the buildings were burned, 
including Nathaniel Merrill's tavern, Wickham's 
store and dwelling, Fitzhugh's dwelling, Wm. 
Edus' house and the warehouse. Barakins & 
Hoylarts "Mansion House" was only partially 
burned. Those who held back the invaders 
until help could arrive were Elder Seba Norton, 
George Palmer, Byram Green, Timothy Axtell, 
Freeman Axtell, Messrs. Knight, Terry and 
Warner, Lyman Dunning, Elias Hull, Alanson 
M. Knapp, Amasa Johnson, Nathaniel Merrill, 
Maj. Farr, Isaac Lemmon, Robert Caruthers, 
John Hawley, Joseph Ellis, Alanson Corey, Ga- 
lusha Harrington, Chester Eldridge, Ammin 
Ellsworth, Isaac Davis, Messrs. Paine and Pol- 
lock, Benjamin Blanchard, Robert A. Paddock, 
Mr. Britton, Jenks Pullen, Daniel Morton, John 
Holcomb, Thomas Johnson, Lyman Seymour, 
Harry Skinner, Daniel Armes, Alexander Knapp, 
George Palmer, Alexander Mason, Dr. Gibbs and 
Byram Green. 

GALEN HISTORY. 



First Settlers "WHy the Town was 
Named Galen. 

The town of Galen was formed from a division 
of the town of Junius, Seneca county, and was a 
part of that county until the erection of the 
county of Wayne April 11, 1823. The legislative 
act erecting the town of Galen became a law 
Feb. 14, 1812. The next month a town meeting 
was held at the house of Jonathan Melvin on the 
south side of the river in the present village of 
Clyde, once called Lauraville, in March of that 
year. Until Nov. 24, 1824, or more than a year 
after Wayne county was erected, the town of 
Galen included the town of Savannah. The 
name was taken from the Military township (see 
"Military Tract" in another column) of Galen, 
No. 27, of which this town is partly constituted, 
and which was reserved for the physicians and 
surgeons of the revolutionary army. The name 
was given in honor of Claudius Galenus, a Greek 
physician. The greater part of the town was 
originally covered with dense growths of hard 
woods, including a great deal of sugar maple. 

The first settler in the town was undoubtedly 
Ezekiel Crane, although that is disputed by the 
descendants of two families who each claim the 
honor, the Beadles and Kings. There is also an- 
other claimant which appears in Betsey King's 
reminiscences, in the manuscript of Joseph Wat- 
son, and his name is Elias R. Cook. 

CRANE'S DISTILLERY. 

It would appear that the first family to settle 



here who acquired a permanent home in the 
present town was that of Loami Beadle. Crane 
came in 1794 and reared a cabin on the trail be- 
tween Bridgeport, on the west shore of Cayuga 
lake, and the Blockhouse, (now in the town of 
Tyre.) There Crane cleared a farm and erected 
and carried on a distillery. 

Loami Beadle, the son of Thomas Beadle, who 
had settled in Junius, moved to Marengo where 
he settled in 1800. The next year Nicholas King, 
David Godfrey and Isaac Mills brought then- 
families into this section and put up their dwell- 
ings on lot No. 70, on the south shore of the 
river, a couple of miles west of Clyde. One of 
the dwellings was erected by Nicholos King and 
his companion the preceding year, which would 
really bring them here earlier than Loami Beadle, 
and which is the foundation for that claim made 
by the descendants of the King family. 

Crane was killed by an Indian known as "In- 
dian John." The Beadles and the Kings reared 
families and their descendants became well 
known citizens of Galen. 

During the following five years — 1801 and 1806 
—there came into this neighborhood the families 
of David Creager, Elias Austen, Capt. John 
Sherman, Jabez Reynolds, Asaph Whittlesey, 
William Foreman, Aaron Foote, Salem Ford and 
Isaac Beadle. Ford and Foote settled at Lock 
Berlin and Beadle at Marengo. 

EARLIEST CITIZENS OF LAURAVILLE. 

Others who followed were Abraham Romeyn, 
in 1808, who settled west of Lock Berlin, and 
Jonathan Melvin, James Dickson, James Humes- 
ton, Henry Archer, D. Southwick, E. Dean and 
Arza Lewis, who formed the nucleus of the lit- 
tle village of Lauraville, south of the river at 
Clyde in 1810. In the same year James M. Wat- 
son settled south of Marengo. Others who set- 
tled near Clyde in 1810 were Benjamin Shotwell, 
Edward Wing, Samuel Stone and Nathan Blod- 
gett. George Closs setlled at Lock Berlin in 
1813; David E. Garlick 2 l o miles east of Clyde. 

The most prominent settlers in the town of 
Galen during 1811 and 1825 inclusive, were Major 
Frederick A. De Zeng, Wm. S. Stow, Sylvester 
Clark, Dr. John Lewis, Luther Redfield, Abra- 
ham Knapp, Samuel M. Welch, Rev. Jabez Spier, 
John Condit, Levi and David Tuttle, J. B. West, 
Wm. Hunt, Harry West, Daniel Dunn, Thomas 
J. Whiting, Rev. Charles Mosher, Lemuel C. 
Paine, Moses Perkins, Melvin and J. P. Bailey, 
Eben Bailey, Elias R. Cook and John Lewis. 
Elias R. Cook, according to Joseph Watson, 
came earlier, but is generally mentioned as hav- 
ing come at this time. Others whose names ap- 
pear at this time were George Burrill, Thomas 
J. Marsh, Franklin Humphrey, Thomas and Mat- 
thew Mackie, Wm. Aurand, George R. Mason, 
Oliver Stratton and John M. Blodgett. 

Richard Wood, in later years the proprietor of 
the "Indian Queen" hotel, settled in Clyde in 
1826. He was a stone mason by trade, but also 
engaged in the grocery business and served as 
constable, 

The first church society organized in the town 
of Galen was the Presbyterian church of Galen, 
located at Clyde July, 8, 1814, and the first post- 
office, after Galen was erected as a town, was at 
Lauraville, the first postmaster being James 
Humeston. 

State Canal Appraisers from Wayne Co. — 
Ambrose Salisbury appointed May 11, 1843, 
served three years, in place of George W. Cuyler 
who rejected the appointment. 



66 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



LOCK BERLIN In Early Times the 
Junction of Pioneer Xrails Between 
the Lakes and the Hudson— Old Fam- 
ilies who First Settled Xhere. 

Lock Berlin was first settled in 1805 by Solo- 
man Ford who bought 100 acres and in 1812 
James Showers, John and McQuillen Parish and 
John Acker who also separately purchased 100 
acres of land. Mr. Ford built the first frame 
house in 1817. David, William and Benjamin 
Ford opened the first store in 1824. Prior to 
that the trading was all done at Marengo. The 
Fords also ran a distillery, brick yard, cooper 
shop and ashery. Aaron Griswold and William 
Ford started the second store in 1831. Alfred 
Griswold succeeded Ford and was in company 
with his brother, Aaron, the firm being Gris- 
wold Bros,, until 1836. N. B. Gilbert in 1849 be- 
gan the manufacture of wagons which he con- 
tinued until his death in 1875. William Griswold 
was for a long time a grocer on the canal. 

The first school was erected near Black Brook, 
of logs, in 1814, and was first taught by John 
Abbott. Nine years later it burned and a new 
one was erected one-half mile east of the old one. 

Lock Berlin was originally a crossing of the 
trails covered with a heavy growth of sugar 
maples. A track through the woods had been 
opened by means of blazing the trees, as was 
customary with those passing through woods 
without having sufficient knowledge of the local- 
ity without having some method to guide them 
on their way. 

Aaron Foote, Israel Roy, Myron Cookingham 
and L. N. Gilbert were among the older families 
who settled here. 

School Memories, Sixty Years Ago District 
8, Galen ; Boys' Pranks ; Squire Crosby's Rul- 
er ; Characteristics of Early Teachers: 
"The little red schoolhouse at the foot of the 
hill, in District No. 8 in the town of Galen, has 
long since disappeared "—writes Maj. Henry 
Romeyn. "Miss Henneberg, my first teacher, 
early in the forties, is remembered principally 
because of having taken me into her sheltering 
arms on one occasion when some truant cattle 
passing along the road bellowed; Miss Amanda 
McKee, because under her eyes I undertook the 
making of 'pot hooks' and 'coarse-hand' disfig- 
uring of my home-made writing-book ; and later, 
for four consecutive summers, Miss Harriet Cole 
(Mrs. John Merchant). All these were gentle, 
sweet-tempered women; and I have no recollec- 
tion of having heard a harsh word from either 
of them. 

"Celus (commonly called '"Squire") Crosby, 
was my first teacher for a winter term. He did 
not believe in having any spoiled boys on his 
school rolls, and acted accordingly. He had lost 
the sight of an eye, but the other could detect 
more mischief among his pupils than could both 
the eyes of any other teacher I ever saw, unless 
they were those of Professor Brittan. His 
white-ash ruler was always in hand, and the 
hard side of it had a strong affinity for that part 
of a boy's person which carried most flesh and 
—when the weapon was in use— was not covered 
by the skirts of his coat. 

COUNTRY TEACHER BECAME MILLIONAIRE. 

"A young Englishman, Daniel Scotten, later 



the millionaire tohacconist of Detroit, who died 
but a few years since, was. my next teacher for 
a winter. He was a good looking young fellow, 
of a rather musical turn of mind, and a favorite 
with the young women— of whom six or eight 
were pupils. This, and his gentle manners, 
made the young men jealous ; and some of them 
were mean enough to destroy his violin, which 
he had kept in his desk and frequently practiced 
upon after school hours. 

'"Squire Perkins of Lock Berlin plodded 
through the snow daily, one winter for the exor- 
bitant sum of $20 per month; and was a good 
teacher. He opened the school with prayer 
every morning. Some of the female teachers 
had a chapter of the Bible read by the pupils at 
the morning opening, but none, that I now re- 
member, offered prayer. 

"John Pierce, another young Englishman who 
was at first an apprentice to Mr. Nathan B. 
Gilbert of Lock Berlin, (another "Squire') 
taught us for four winters, — wages, $16 per 
month and 'boarded 'round,' though a large part 
of the time he was a guest at my parents' house. 

OLD BOX STOVE. 

"In those days wood, contributed by families 
in their turn was used in the old box stove. 
Under it, steaming mittens, wetted through in 
making snowballs, were placed to dry, — often to 
burn— while their owners were engaged at some 
recitation. Mischievous young fellows would, at 
times when the teacher was absent for a few 
moments, lift the pipe, which ran straight up to 
the bottom of the chimney at the ceiling and in- 
serting the dryest stick to be found, replace the 
pipe; and soon the increased roaring would dis- 
close what had been done, and a blaze would 
show at the top of the flue, while 'Squire Crosby 
would be obliged to look on; helpless, no one re- 
plying to his thunderous question, — 'Who did 
that?' 

WINTER PASTIMES THOSE DAYS. 

"Spelling schools were among the evening en- 
e rtainments in every district and furnished 
much amusement. Sometimes a singing-school 
would be held (generally once a week) through 
the winter, the price per evening being one dol- 
lar, with not less than twelve subscribers. Then 
came such catchpenny affairs as travelling phre- 
nologists whose delineations of character — and 
some of them were very accurate— furnished a 
large fund of amusement. Next came the elec- 
trician, with a battery or two, a Geyden jar, a 
pair of electric slippers, and a limber tongue, 
accompanied by a young lady who sang catchy 
songs, accompanying herself on a small melo- 
deon, —the whole show costing a shilling (lS^cts) 
per head. 

CLYDE LAND OWNERS. 



Three Men First Owned the Site of the 
Village. 

The corporate limits of Clyde to-day include 
parts of four lots that were surveyed for distri- 
bution among the veteran soldiers of the patriot 
army in the revolution, and were included in the 
great military tract that was laid out for that 
purpose (see the sketch headed "Military Tract" 
on another page.) They are the following lots:— 
No. 31, taking in the western part of the village 
on the north side of the river— west of the resi- 
dence of Anson Burnett on West Genesee street; 
No. 32 jogs into the north-east part of the vi- 



"GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



67 



lage; No. 45 takes the south-western portion of 
the south side of the river; No. 46 slices into the 
south-east line of the village on both sides of the 
river. The four lots corner near the glass works. 

Lot No. 45 was known as the "school and gos- 
pel lot" being reserved by the state to furnish 
the settlements in the military tract with means 
to establish schools and churches. 

John Smedes drew lot No. 31. A considerable 
part of it became known as the Adams farm, the 
rest of it passing piecemeal to several different 
owners. 

Dr. Isaac Ledyard drew lot No. 32, which in- 
cluded what is now the main business and resi- 
dential section of the village. In 1817 it passed 
into the hands of George Burrill, from whom 
Maj. Frederick A. DeZeng obtained title to his 
lands north of the river. 

Stephen McRea drew lot No. 46. 

Mineral Borings — In 1832 Wm. S. Stow, 
Thomas J. Whiting, James R. Rees, Cyrus Smith 
and other citizens whose names are unknown, 
organized a company called the Clyde Salt Com- 
pany and made an artesian boring for salt at the 
corner of Ford and Galen streets on the ground 
where now stands the building occupied by Albert 
Cullen as a blacksmith shop. This well was 
sunk to the depth of about 388 feet and 4 inches. 
At the depth of about 112 feet gas was struck, 
which burned at intervals for many years. A 
mineral vein was struck at about 125 feet. Salt 
water was obtained of a degree of about 25 per 
cent, of saturation, but not of sufficient quantity 
to warrant the manufacture of salt, and the 
well was abandoned for that reason. 

At some period, the precise date of which is 
now unknown, a boring for salt was commenced 
at the water's edge on the river bank just east 
of the old yellow grist mill and opposite the pres- 
ent Central freight house. At about 112 feet 
the mineral vein was struck and on this account 
the boring for salt was abandoned. This well 
flowed a moderate stream of water and was in 
use for many years. The remains of the well are 
still to be seen though no water is flowing from it. 

The mineral well in the park was sunk in 1893 
through the efforts of De Lancey Stow. Here 
the mineral vein was reached at about 125 feet 
but the boring was continued to 146 feet in hopes 
of procuring a supply that would flow to the 
surface. 

A boring which reached the mineral vein was 
made by Streeter Bros, in their malt house, and 
still another well which also reached the mineral 
vein was sunk by the H. C. Heminway Company 
at their canning factory. 

In May, 1887, a company was organized with 
a capital of $3,000 and deep drilling began on 
September 13, on the vacant lot near the glass 
works. The directors of the companv were W. 
D. Ely, J. N. Streeter, A. H. Smith, W. H. 
Groesbeck, Geo. O. Baker. The work was sus- 
pended at the depth of 1,792 feet. Mineral water 
was reached at 110 feet, salt at 175 feet and gas 
at 685 feet. 

The park, the Streeter and the Heminway 
wells are all in perfect condition at the present 
time. No analysis of the water in any of these 
wells, except the one at the river bank, has 
ever been made. The analysis of the river well 
is as follows: Muriate of soda 55 grains, muri- 
ate of lime 33 grains and sulphate and muriate 
of magnesia 12 grains. 



The Fire Department— Three full and well 
manned companies comprise the Fire Depart- 
ment of Clyde, the Protectives, No. 1, the Ever- 
ready, No. 2 and the Electrics, No. 3. The poli- 
cy of the village is to give these organizations 
hearty support, a fact fully demonstrated by the 
remarkable success of a "firemen's fair" which 
was conducted by the Protectives and Ever- 
ready 's during the month of January, 1905. Clyde 
was unfortunate in disastrous fires until the re- 
cent organization of the department. The men 
now at the helm have certainly the best reason 
to feel proud of their organizations, for in the 
matter of personnel the companies rank high, 
and they are officered by men who have the fullest 
confidence of the company ranks as well as the 
community. At firemen's conventions attended 
by the Clyde companies they have won praise 
both for their gentlemenly bearing, their success 
in competition with other companies and their 
fine uniforms. 

As has been stated, for the past ten years 
Clyde has been exempt from serious fires. Up 
to that time the most important fires were: At 
the glass works, July 24, 1873, loss $55,000; the 
same place, Sept., 1874, loss $3,000; Newman 
house, Oct., 1874, loss $8,000; Barse block, May 
28, 1878, loss $10,000; Clyde Hotel, Episcopal 
church and Gillette block, Sept., 11, 1883, loss 
$25,000; Columbia street blocks, Jan. 17,' 1889, 
loss $12,000; the second Columbia street fire' 
Jan. 8, 1890, loss $7,000; Glasgow street fire,' 
Jan. 16, 1890, loss about the same. 

The first organized fire company in the village 
was No. 1, H. & L. composed of sixteen persons 
oppointed firemen by the village trustees Jan. 7, 
1836. The Cataract, a goose-neck hand engine 
was purchased by the village in 1841 at a cost of 
$1,000 at which time the old Cataract Engine 
company was organized. It was re-organized as 
the Niagara Fire Company, No. 2, Oct. 20, 1857, 
a new hand engine having been purchased on the 
4th of the same month. This engine was burned 
in the fire at the glass works July 25, 1873. The 
fire bell was placed in the town hall in June, 1886. 

Incorporation of Clyde.— The act of incor- 
poration of Clyde became a law on May 2, 1835. 
At a later date at the office of Wm. S. Stow, 
now called the cradle of the corporation, the fol- 
lowing five trustees of the village were chosen 
to serve the first term under the new law: — 
Samuel C. Paine, William S. Stow, Aaron T. 
Hardrick, John Condit and Arza Lewis. It was 
at this office that the charter was drafted prior 
to being sent to Albany. On June 8 of the same 
year the village was divided into three sub-divi- 
sions called corporations 1, 2 and 3. The first 
lay south of the river, the second north of the 
river and east of Sodus street and the third north 
of the river and west of Sodus street. Eleazer 
H. House was chosen overseer of highways for 
corporation 1, Richard Wood for corporation 2, 
and George Thompson for corporation 3. 

The second annual election of officers for the 
village, on the first Tuesday in June in 1836, at 
the office of William S. Stow, resulted as fol- 
lows:— Trustees, Jeremiah L. B. Jones, Ira Jen- 
kins, Nathan P. Colvin, Benjamin Ford and Wil- 
liam S. Stow; Treasurer, Charles D. Lawton; 
Collector, Lyman B. Dickerson; Constable, Rich- 
ard Wood; Poundmaster, Stephen Salisbury; 
Overseers of Highway, Eleazer H. House, Rich- 
ard Wood and George Thompson. Ira Jenkins 
was chosen by the board for President and A. R. 
Frisbie village clerk. 



!8G5 



68 



'GRIP'S" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



Presidents of the Village; the Years They 
Served: — Aaron T. Hendrick 1835; Ira Jenkins 
1836; Nathan P. Colvin 1837; Wra. S. Stow 
1838-'40, '44; B. M. Vanderveer 1841; Charles 
D. Lawton 1842; Win. O. Sloan 1843, '45; Albert 
Clark 1846; Luther Field 1847; Ambrose S. Field 
1848; Jabez L'Amoreaux 1849; Charles E. Elliott 
1850; Alfred C. Howel851-'3; Samuel S. Streeter 
1854; Samuel Weed 1855; Albert F. Redrield 
1856, '83; Adrastus Snedaker 1857; Aaron Gris- 
wold 1858, '67-'9, '71; John Condit 1859; Byron 
Ford 1860; Soloman H. Skinner 1861; Wm. H. 
Coffin 1862-'3; Dr. Darwin Colvin 1864-'6, '77 
James M. Streeter 1870, '80; P. Ira Lape 1872 
Aaron Gregory 1873; John Crowell 1874- '5 
Charles T. Saxton 1876; John Cockshaw 1878 
Edwin Sands 1879, '84; Marcus Shafer 1881 
Lathrop S. Taylor 1882; Levi Paddock 1885 
Michael A. Fisher 1886; Arthur H. Smith 1887 
Avery H. Gillette 1888, 1903; Charles R. Strang- 
ham 1889; Albert C. Lux 1890; James Keester 
1891; James R. Miller 1892, 1901; Archibald M. 
Graham 1893; George B. Greenway 1894; Wm. 
F. Bockoven 1895; Fred W. Miller 1897; W. J. 
Collins 1898; F. W. Miller 1899; Dr. T. H. Hal- 
lett 1900; F. C. Drury 1902; W. N. Field 1896, 
1904. 

The Free Methodist Church was organized 
in Harmony hall early in 1864 by Rev. Wm. 
Cooly. The earliest members were Samuel 
Fornecrook, Elizabeth Fornecrook, Harrison 
Holcomb, Mary A. Holcomb, Almira Potter, 
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Baker, Henry and Isaac 
Cole, Wm. Phillips, Betsey Strong, Phebe Gri- 
ner, Euphemia Grover, Philip Sours, P. Grim- 
shaw and Isaac Hammond. The first pastor in- 
stalled was Rev. J. B. Stacey. The society pur- 
chased the old Baptist church building near the 
Public square, but the title reverted to the orig- 



inal owners. The society then purchased a half 
interest in the old Methodist church building with 
the Lutheran society and it was dedicated in 1864 
by Rev. D. W. Thurston. The earliest pastors 
were J. B. Stacey two years, Rev. M. D. Mc- 
Dougal two years, Rev. J. B. Freeland two 
years, Rev. M. N. Downing two years, Rev. 
Wm. Southworth two years, Rev. J. S. Whiffin 
two years and Rev. O. M. Owen. 

Postoffice— In 1817 a postoffice was estab- 
lished at Lauraville called Galen. James Hume- 
ston was appointed postmaster and the office was 
located in Humeston's tavern. In 1826 through 
the influence of Congressman Robert Rose and 
Wm. S. Stow the name of the postoffice was- 
changed to Clyde and the office was located on 
the north side of the river. Dr. Wells was the 
first postmaster. Sylvester Clark followed Dr. 
Wells. Dr. James Dickson, a physician and 
merchant, who died from cholera in 1832, was- 
the third postmaster. James Humeston, the 
fourth, Aaron Griswold, the fifth, Col. P. V. N. 
Smith, the sixth, appointed by President Harri- 
son, August Kellogg, the seventh postmaster, 
appointed by President Tyler, Joseph D. Stone, 
the eighth, appointed during President Tyler's 
administration, Jacob T. Van Buskirk, the ninth, 
appointed by President Taylor, and James Chap- 
man, the tenth, appointed by the succeeding 
national administration, served until 1862. Sam- 
uel S. Morley, in 1862, was appointed postmaster 
by President Lincoln. 

Commissioners to erect the first county 
buildings in Wayne county, were Nathaniel Kel- 
William Patrick and Simeon Griswold. 



Great Bells, the weight, viz — "Great Bell,"' 
Moscow, 443,732 pounds; St. Ivans, Moscow, 
127,830 pounds; Pekin, 120,000 pounds. 



INDEX TO "GRIP'*" HISTORICAL SOUVENIR OF CLYDE. 



Assemblymen, list 12 

Atkins, JC 32, 33 

Alton, 21 

Blockhouse, 10 

Baptist Ch, 20— Moscript, RevCH 
21-Vrooman, RevJB 21-Nut- 
ting, RevCA 20 

Baker, GO 32, 33 

Barrett, DrGD 52 

Bank, Brings Nat 56 

Briggs, SS&SH 56 

Birth, 1st in Galen 20 

Clyde, desc. 2 — Street views 3-14 
Birdseye 2 — in 1815 15— Park 
view in 1850 31 -in 1856 24, 27 
History 46- "Times" 27 

Creamery, 43 

Condit, Jno 23 

Colvin, DrD 29 

Cath. Ch, St John's, 42— Gleason, 
RevJJ 42 

De Zeng, FA&WS 35 

Daboll, Homer 34 

Education, Bd of 56 

Epis. Ch, St John's 40-Bouck, 
RevFN 40 — Prominent Episco- 
palians 34 

Everready Hose Co 47 

Electric Hose Co 49 

Farmers' Exchange 44 

Fire of 1847 31 

Fire Department 67 

Flood of 1840 19 



Field, AS,WN&CW 62 

Griswold, Aaron 22 
Grange, 45, 50 

Galen Hist. 65 

Grand Jurors, 1st 27 

GAR Snedaker Post 39— Ladies' 
Auxiliary 55 

Hoyt, GH (dec.) 50— GH 59 

Hughson, EN&MN 54 

Hunt, WA 56 

Hunt's res, Mrs. Susan 58 

Hinman, JW 56 

Incorporation of Clyde 67 

Judges, Co 20— 1st in County 31 

Kellogg, JT 59 

Land Owners of Clyde, the 1st 66 

Lock Berlin 66— School Memo- 
ries 66 

Locomotive, 1st in Clyde 23 

Military Tract 13 

Marengo 41 

Masons 23-R A M 22— Eastern 
Star 43 

Meth. Ch 26— Walker, late Rev 
CW 26-Riegal, RevPH 27- 
Official Board 55— Ushers 54 

Manufacturers, Early 37 

Marriott, BN 27 

Mineral Boring 67 

Odd Fellows 36— Encampment 37 
—Canton 38 

Palmer, LF-fcEB 56 

Protectivr se Co 46 



Presbyterian Ch. 17 — Yergin, 

RevVN 17- Ushers 41 
Public Bgs in 1860 29 
Pultenay Estate 11 
Philomathean 61 
Reminiscences:— Dr Colvin's 4 — 

Betsey King's 30 — Carrie Ger- 
man's 33 
RR Yards in 1860 18 
Rees, JamesR 29 
Redfield, L&AF 32 
Sodus Bay 14— Burning of Sodus 

64-Sodus Bay Trolley 64 
Stow, Wm&DeL 28 
Snedaker, Adrastus 30 
School 58-60 
Sheriffs, list 31 
Smith, Seth&Sarahette 34 
Scott, Jacob 34 
State Engineer 13 
State Canal Appraisers Wayne 

Co 65 
Terry, AF 49 
Tree. Historical 39 
Wells, EB 48 
W C T U 48 
Wood, SW&Sons 53 
Watson, Jos 34 
Wayne, pop in 1825 22— Officers 

of 42— Constitutional delegates 

of 42 
Warren, FH 59 
Zeluff, CE 58 



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